PARIS – French President Emmanuel Macron has condemned violence against teachers and government officials during nationwide street protests after an official was hit by a gasoline-filled bottle outside a high school near Paris.
The object was thrown at regional councillor Angela Avond in the Paris suburb of Chelles on Tuesday.
“I give my full support to Angela Avond, who was doused with gasoline outside a high school in Chelles, as well as to all Education Ministry staff, particularly school principals, who are subjected to violence,” Mr Macron wrote on X.
“Violence has no place in a democracy. These acts have nothing to do with expressing demands: they are acts of brutality and intimidation and must be punished with the utmost severity.”
France has been swept by protests that began in September, when students demanded the renovation of school buildings, more teachers and university reforms.
These demonstrations grew into broader cost-of-living protests, drawing in trade unions and political activists, that sometimes turned violent.
In Begles, near Bordeaux in southwestern France, a high school principal was hit in the head on Monday by a projectile, while in Aix-en-Provence, in the south, a high school was set on fire overnight.
Some students and protesters say they have been subjected to excessively rough treatment by police, while police say the protest movement has been infiltrated by violent and criminal elements.
“This violence is absolutely unacceptable,” government spokesman Mathieu Lefevre said, adding that nearly 300 national education staff had been injured since the start of the student protests nearly two months ago.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said that as of Tuesday 99 percent of high school students were back in class, but added: “In a few schools, there are dangerous people, violent people, who attack staff and elected officials.”
Forty-nine of the country’s 3700 high schools were blockaded on Tuesday morning, the Education Ministry said.
French high school and university student unions said on Monday they were not satisfied after holding talks with Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu and have called for the demonstrations to continue.
Dominique Vidalon, Makini Brice, Sudip Kar-Gupta, Reuters
