French high school students clashed with police on Tuesday as they continued blockading some schools, angering the government, while unions planned nationwide protests over a cost-cutting budget.
High school students have been protesting outside their schools since last week over issues including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers, with some blocking entrances using rubbish bins and setting them on fire.
The movement in the lycees, which handle the final years of school in France, began in the Ile-de-France region around Paris. Education authorities reported blockades at around 10 schools there on Tuesday, with the protests now spreading to other cities nationwide.
Masked students gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, northern France, as a bin burned. Police used teargas as clashes broke out, an AFP photographer said.
A placard reading “Macron explosion” was seen in front of the entrance of the Lycee Arago high school, which was blocked by French high school students in Paris during a day of strikes and protests by public sector workers, including firefighters.
In the western city of Nantes, teenagers piled up dozens of bins to prevent entry to the Lycee Gabriel Guist’hau. In Paris, meanwhile, an uneasy standoff took place between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school.
Similar actions were also reported in cities including Marseille in the south and Lyon in the southeast.