French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a meeting at the Élysée Palace over mass protests by lycée students. It will be attended by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Minister of National Education Édouard Geffray. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Kursiv Media.
According to sources of the BFMTV channel, the meeting will take place after a third wave of mass demonstrations joined by parents, teachers, students and trade union representatives.
According to the student union Union étudiante, 450,000 people took part in protests across France on October 6. The country's Interior Ministry gives a different figure — 256,000.
The Ministry of Education reported that on that day classes were fully or partially suspended in 891 lycées out of 3,700. The statistics take into account all reasons for the suspension of classes.
Lycée students complain about the poor condition of school buildings, overcrowded classes, overloaded schedules and the lack of substitute teachers. Another cause of discontent is inequality, which they link to the Parcoursup university admissions system.
The October 6 demonstrations took place under heightened control by the authorities. They were preceded by several days of tension and clashes.
According to the Prime Minister's office, 215 students have been injured since the start of the protests. It claims that the "vast majority" were injured as a result of accidents or the actions of third parties.
Last week in Tours, a 16-year-old lycée student lost the sight in one eye while a school was being blockaded. On Monday, October 5, in Lens, a grenade explosion tore off the hand of a 15-year-old teenager.
Speaking in the National Assembly on October 6, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu rejected the existence of any "political instructions for police repression." He stated that "accidents can happen" and accused the left-wing party "La France Insoumise" of inflaming tensions.