STRASBOURG/LYON/PARIS, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Demonstrations swept across France on Tuesday as teachers and parents took to the streets with high school pupils on the biggest day of what Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described as the most violent student demonstrations in decades.
US President Donald Trump said the protests were evidence of "out of control" migration in France. "This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country," he posted on Truth Social.
Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent groups on the fringes of marches in Paris, Strasbourg, Rennes and Toulouse, among other cities. The marches drew more than 250,000 people in dozens of cities, the interior ministry said, though organisers said 450,000 had participated.
Get a look at the day ahead in European and global markets with the Morning Bid Europe newsletter. Sign up here. The protests, in which a teenager lost a hand on Monday, were the latest manifestation of public anger in a country where support for populist parties on the far right and far left has surged ahead of a presidential election in the spring. The government is under pressure to tame public debt amid weak growth, and has struggled with basic tasks such as passing a budget since President Emmanuel Macron's allies lost their majority in a 2024 parliamentary vote. Lecornu told lawmakers at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had so far been injured in clashes, "the heaviest toll in decades paid by the school system". His office said more than 700 police officers were also hurt. Macron has convened Lecornu and other senior ministers at an emergency meeting on Tuesday, broadcaster BFM reported.
Parent Emilie Lhomme said at a protest outside the Helene Boucher school in Paris that the government's words were not enough: "That's all fine and dandy, but that's not what's going to change the daily lives of our children," she said. Finding spare cash to implement educational reforms will be difficult. The government is under pressure to try to narrow a ballooning budget deficit as investor concerns about France's growing debt, weak growth and reluctance to rein in spending push the cost of borrowing higher. The yield on France's 10-year bonds briefly hit a 24-year high of over 5% last week. The surge in French borrowing costs has started to spill into the broader euro area, with the sliding euro currency the latest alarm bell for policy makers. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Tuesday there was no need for the European Central Bank to step in. Le Pen, the far-right euro-sceptic populist leading the presidential race ahead of next spring's election, set out plans to slash public spending if elected, seeking to establish her fiscal credibility as the bond market crisis deepens.