PARIS: Thousands of demonstrators marched through central Paris on Tuesday as part of nationwide protests in support of high school students demanding improved classroom conditions, with Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg joining the demonstrations.
The protests come six months ahead of elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron. French authorities had hoped the demonstrations would ease before half-term holidays begin at the end of the week.
However, high school students, known in France as lycéens, backed by university students, teachers, trade unions and the far-left opposition party France Unbowed (LFI), said their demands remained unmet.
French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon was also seen among the demonstrators in Paris.
Outside Paris City Hall, mostly university students gathered in the early afternoon as an orchestra played The Rebel Fanfare from the Star Wars films.
“I’m expecting a surge of solidarity,” said 20-year-old Patricia, who declined to provide her surname.
“We’re not giving up the fight, whether it’s for the high school students who were hit with a harsh crackdown, or for denouncing police violence,” she added, referring to multiple allegations of police brutality against protesters in recent weeks.
France’s education ministry reported that 214 schools were closed on Tuesday, most of them high schools, out of approximately 3,700 nationwide.
The university student union L’Union Étudiante reported that 90% of universities across the country had also closed in solidarity with the demonstrations.
Thunberg, who rose to prominence as a teenager through school strikes demanding action on climate change, joined students protesting outside a school in Saint-Denis, the capital’s largest suburb.
“Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us,” the 23-year-old activist told reporters outside Paul Eluard High School.