Why Are Students Protesting Across France?

The demonstrations have escalated still further this week, spreading outside of Paris’ surrounding area and into regions around the country. Tracking from Reuters also showed that protests have sprouted across western France in Rennes, Nantes, Quimper, and Brest; around the southern part of the country in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Toulon, Marseilles and Grenoble; as far east as Strasbourg; and as far north as Lille.

By Monday, 180 schools were disrupted by the expanded demonstrations, according to the interior ministry. That number had risen to over 500 at week’s end.

Thursday marked the largest escalation of protests. 

Fires were started at at least two French schools that day. Several teachers were accidentally splashed with gasoline at Marseille’s Victor Hugo high school. At Saint-Exupery high school, also in Marseilles, hundreds of students set ablaze a fire truck that had arrived to put out a previous fire from the morning. Firefighters were forced by students to exit their vehicle before it was burned. In protests around the country, confrontations broke out between students and police, who fired projectiles in attempts to control crowds of demonstrators.