What to expect from French student protests and strikes on Thursday
French students have vowed to continue their protests, with Thursday designed a ‘day of action’ – here’s what to expect.
After a huge turnout at marches and demos across France and Thursday, unions representing lycée students say they intend to continue their protests.
Thursday, October 8th, is designated as ‘act four’ of the protest – here’s what to expect.
School closures – classes have been suspended at many lycées (high schools, which pupils attend between the ages of 15 and 18) for the rest of the week. The government wants students and staff to use the days for ‘internal democracy’ – an idea which many have already rejected as they say that students and staff are largely on the same page when it comes to their demands for more resources for education, more teachers and funding for school repairs.
On Wednesday, around 500 of the country’s roughly 2,500 lycées were closed.
Some schools that have a shared site for lycée and collège (middle school or secondary school) also closed.
Blockades – Tuesday saw few blockades at lycées because the students were mostly joining marches; however, the blockades staged in front of lycées are likely to resume in some areas on Thursday. There could be road closures and police actions in the areas around lycées.
Some university students are also joining the movement and have staged blockades at their universities, including at Sciences-Po in Paris. These could continue at university campuses across France on Thursday.
Strikes – Four teaching unions – Snes-FSU, CGT, FO and Sud – have declared a one-day strike on Thursday in solidarity with the protesting students.
This covers teachers at all levels, so there could be school or class closures at primary schools and collèges as well as lycées, depending on the level of support for the strike.
Anything non-school related?
At the time of writing, the action is very focused on the education sector with no other unions joining in. The disruption is therefore likely to be limited to schools and to mainly affect pupils and their parents.
There may also be some road closures and police action in some areas, although there are no demos planned for Thursday.
