Few closed schools and unauthorised protest in France

A a new challenge day called for today in France by several student organizations caused the closure of about 50 secondary schools and other universities that joined the protests.

In addition, in a gesture interpreted as a challenge to the French Government, an unauthorized march was carried out in the centre of Paris, in which mainly French university students participated.

Two days from the day of strike and national mobilization marked in protest against the increase in the cost of life and in defense of public education and health, student discontent today remained at a level similar to that of Monday.

On that day, pickets forced the closure of 41 educational institutions, right on their return to school, after two weeks of autumn vacation, figures that are far from the more than 400 closures recorded at the height of the protests a month ago.

The Trade Union of Secondary Schools (USL) contested data from the French Ministry of Education (which indicated that 1.3% of schools had been affected) and stated that on Monday more than 150 institutions were barred throughout the country.

“ In some of these schools, National Education professionals have returned to violence. I condemn these unacceptable acts and express all my support to those who have suffered them”, said the Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, in a message released on social network X.

According to Le Parisien, the employees of the Parc-des-Loges school in Évry, in the outskirts of Paris, were hit by pyrotechnic devices, and an educational assistant was injured in an ear as a result of this attack.

Today’s contest day was called by the National Student Union of France (UNEF), which had proposed a “black journey” in universities, with general assemblies and blockades.

According to a survey by the Ministry of Higher Education, the operation of 51 of the 184 university centers was affected by today's mobilization.

In the vicinity of the Sorbonne unit in central Paris, hundreds of students marched, although they were not authorized by the authorities.

The participants spoke between Saint-Germain-des-Prés and Jussieu, surrounded by a large police contingent. The march ended with no notable incidents, according to the local press.

The organizers of the stoppage and mobilization of November 5 — including unions, student associations and the “Yellow Collections” movement — expect to concentrate hundreds of thousands of people across the country.

In Paris, the expectation is that between 100,000 and 150 thousand protesters, according to the TF1 channel, will be between 400 and 800 agitators linked to the ultra-left (more to the left of the radical left).

As happened last Saturday, the organizers proposed to the authorities a route through the center of the capital, which could, however, be vetoed again, in order, according to the government's justification, to prevent the repeated looting on 17 October.

Today, the work of a parliamentary committee to investigate failures in the management of this day's disturbances began in the French National Assembly.

The French Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, took responsibility for the fiasco, while defending the role of secret services in issuing alerts.

“ The failure found does not in itself imply a failure of the services of the State ", said Nuñez, in the statement to the commission of inquiry on the episodes of violence on October 17 and 18, whose images of destruction and pillage had worldwide repercussions.