Police fired tear gas in Paris and other French cities on Tuesday as 266,000 people marched to support high school students demanding more education funding, according to the Interior Ministry.
The big picture: The protests started at a single high school in the Paris region in mid-September over dilapidated buildings and staff shortages. More than two weeks of class boycotts and blockades have followed, and policing has produced more than 6,500 arrests, most of them minors.
- The Interior Ministry counted 56,000 marchers in Paris alone, where small groups clashed with riot officers at the end of a largely peaceful march, and nearly 500 people were detained Tuesday.
- Classes were fully or partly suspended at 891 schools, the Education Ministry said, after authorities began shutting schools last week to take steam out of the demonstrations.
Zoom in: Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 715 officers have been injured and defended the police response as proportionate in "almost all cases," while a 15-year-old boy lost a hand Monday in an incident involving a police stun grenade.
What they're saying: "We need to listen to them," said Léa Monimart, an adult demonstrator in Lille. "They are 17 years old; they are not completely clueless, and they know what they are talking about."
- Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told parliament the government must find solutions, denounced "ultra violence" against schools, and pledged that any "accidents" would be investigated.
Between the lines: The teenagers have struck a chord in a country frustrated by fuel prices driven up by the Iran war, constraints on public spending and rising inequality. President Emmanuel Macron cannot run again, and the unrest has become a flashpoint in the early days of the presidential campaign, with the far-left France Unbowed candidate backing the students.
What's next: Some student groups have called for new protests Thursday. AP reports the use of arrests, tear gas and riot-control weapons against teenagers is fueling defiance and angering parents and teachers.
Why it matters: A quarter of a million people marching for schools, led by 17-year-olds, is the kind of movement that has reshaped French politics before, and it is landing in the first weeks of a presidential race.
