Hundreds of French high schools will begin a second week of closures on Monday as protests over dilapidated schools, overcrowding and teacher shortages precede a nationwide day of demonstrations on Tuesday. Education Minister Edouard Geffray said Sunday evening that between 400 and 500 high schools, out of 3,700 nationally, would remain completely or partially closed because security conditions had not been met.
The protests began in late September at a high school in a Paris suburb and spread nationwide. Geffray said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked and 78 education-system employees injured since the demonstrations began. More than 5,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested since last Monday, with around 85 percent of those detained in the Paris region reported to be minors. On Friday alone 1,747 people were arrested. BFMTV showed police-student skirmishes in Lille on Monday.
The timing could hardly be worse for the government. France is trying to pass a deficit-narrowing 2027 budget — the €43 billion austerity package markets sold anyway — and the 10-year OAT yield briefly topped 5 percent last week, its highest since 2002. The OAT-Bund spread ended Friday at 149 basis points, the widest since January 2012. “Our priority is to restore order,” government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon told CNews on Monday. Paris police chief Patrice Faure said in an open letter Saturday that those who launched the protests no longer controlled them.