00:00What happens when a whole generation decides it's had enough?
00:04Across France, thousands of high school students have been walking out of class,
00:09blockading school entrances and taking to the streets.
00:13What started as complaints about overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities
00:18has now spread to hundreds of schools nationwide.
00:22Students say this summer's intense heat waves exposed another problem.
00:26School buildings simply aren't equipped for hotter temperatures.
00:30But in some cities, the protests have turned ugly.
00:33Rubbish bins have been set on fire, projectiles thrown at police,
00:37and officers have responded with tear gas and batons.
00:41Hundreds of people, many of them minors, have been detained as clashes erupted from Paris and Lille to Marseille, Lyon
00:49and Nantes.
00:50Young people across the country seem to be on fire.
00:54Opposition politicians are backing their students,
00:57while the government is accusing the hard left of fueling unrest.
01:01The protests are colliding with wider demonstrations against planned budget cuts.
01:06With France already heading into a tense pre-election period,
01:10a movement that began in the classroom is rapidly turning into a test of political authority.
01:16So who are these students?
01:18What exactly are they demanding?
01:20And why is France's school protest movement escalating so quickly?
01:24That's what we're looking into today.
01:27And we do that with the journalist Catherine Field, who joins us from Paris for more.
01:32Catherine, there was widespread unrest and arrests yesterday.
01:35What's the situation right now?
01:39Yes, there are already several hundred schools, mostly lycées and middle schools across the country,
01:45being blockaded by students who want to just keep the pressure on the government in this vital week
01:51when there's going to be talk within Parliament about next year's budget.
01:55Now, how widespread are these protests now?
01:58Is it all over the country?
02:02Indeed, it is, Gerhard, right across the country.
02:04As you mentioned, from Lille right in the north here to Paris, Lyon.
02:09Then the west, you've also got Nantes, Rennes, and down in the south, Marseille, Nice.
02:14It really is a feeling that unless they get together,
02:19that the students feel they're not going to be heard,
02:22that you've got to have in France a nationwide protest
02:25that really does show that not just this generation,
02:29but this generation across the country is standing up and saying,
02:32hey, we're the next generation.
02:34We're the ones that you need to keep this country going in the decades ahead.
02:41Now, in concrete terms, what are students actually angry about?
02:44Beyond the dramatic scenes and clashes with police,
02:46what are the core complaints driving this movement, as you describe it?
02:52Core complaints are student sizes at universities, high schools and colleges.
02:58The number of students per class in some schools has gone beyond 35,
03:04sometimes up to more than 40.
03:06Teachers' absences.
03:07Of course, you're with state budgets being reduced for the public sector.
03:12It's more and more difficult for schools to attract teachers,
03:16for the Ministry of Education to attract new teachers.
03:18It's not really as attractive as a profession as it used to be.
03:23Also, as you rightly mentioned, the state of the classrooms,
03:27not just underinvestment in facilities such as gymnasiums,
03:32scientific labs for high schools,
03:34but also we're suffering from the effects of climate change here.
03:38So you've got schools that are just not set up for the huge summer temperatures
03:44which we've been having.
03:45And it also means they're also not set up for those great swings
03:49that we're seeing in the winter months when it's very cold here
03:52and schools just aren't insulated for that.
03:55So that's become more of an issue
03:56because most of the end-of-year exams are towards the end of the academic year,
04:02which here in France is May and June.
04:05And we've already been seeing these huge temperatures.
04:07So sometimes at the drop of a hat, if there's a heatwave,
04:11students will have been getting ready, checking for those exams,
04:15making sure that they've done all their studying,
04:17and the exam will be postponed just because of a heatwave.
04:20So it's really a matter of lots of things coming together at the same time
04:25that they say, hey, if this is how it's going to be in the future,
04:28it's got to be dealt with now so that doesn't happen.
04:31Now, you've mentioned it, and it looks like the lycees are the centre of this protest.
04:37Lycees are secondary schools that mainly have pupils from privileged families.
04:43So some have said this is just a bunch of spoiled rich kids
04:47who are a bit bored looking for a break on Insta.
04:50Is that justified?
04:54Not entirely.
04:55And in fact, in a way, some of the, as you like, less elite lycees students are saying,
05:02well, you know, actually the whole system isn't fair on us.
05:05And what they're saying is the system whereby students here move from middle school to lycees
05:11and then lycees into, say, apprenticeships and university is weighted in favour of those
05:16so-called elite lycees students, because it all goes into a computer.
05:20Everyone's demands go into the computer.
05:22And it seems to be those with the best marks from the best lycees get the best opportunities,
05:27whether it be for apprenticeships or whether it be for a place at a university.
05:32So in lots of ways, also, these elite, so-called elite university and elite lycees,
05:38they're saying, yeah, the whole system needs to be changed,
05:41because if you don't have that really important waiting when it comes to the computer system
05:46to get your university placed, and if you don't have connections within your community
05:51to be able to get something as simple as an apprenticeship,
05:55then, you know, there's something wholly wrong with the system.
05:59Now, we've seen hundreds of detentions and confrontations with police.
06:03Are these, is this violence, are those isolated incidents involving small groups,
06:08or is the atmosphere becoming more confrontational across the movement, across the country?
06:15There does seem to be more of a confrontation with police, with the authorities nationwide,
06:23rather than just isolated.
06:24Obviously, you have these big population centres across France where you'll have more out on the street.
06:30But really, the question is, who's driving this?
06:33Is it just social media, or is it just the fact that France is heading into this period of elections
06:40coming up,
06:41and the far left on the political spectrum look as though they're going to make it to the next round,
06:47the second round runoff in the presidential election?
06:50Are they stoking it up?
06:51But it certainly does seem like it is reaching a point of which one side is going to give.
06:59I'm not sure it's going to happen this week, because we're in this election period now,
07:04and the government is looking to also balance its budget, get the budget through Parliament this week.
07:10The government wants to save billions of euros,
07:14and of course, they're going to be looking at state funding for education.
07:18Now, you mentioned that the left-wing opposition has apparently started to support these protests.
07:23Is that more than just opportunism?
07:28Well, they seem to feel that they've got more of a potential electorate at the schools.
07:36They seem to think that the young people, and this is borne out by some opinion polls,
07:40they seem to feel that the young people are more in tune with what they're offering.
07:45The far left seems to be offering more social equality, more opportunities,
07:52more chances for students from some of the less well-off parts of France in particular.
08:00So, yes, they are out there.
08:01Some of the mayors from the far left are out there on the barricades telling the students that,
08:06yes, they do have a point and that they won't be listened to if they just stay at home
08:12and write a letter to their local mayor or their local MP.
08:15Now, there have also been warnings that Russia is stoking unrest and discontent in European societies via social media.
08:23Have you seen any evidence of that regarding to these protests?
08:29Not as such in these protests, but just think back.
08:32It was just over a week ago that French President Emmanuel Macron met leaders of all the political parties
08:37in the Elysée Palace here in Paris.
08:40And he was also there alongside the head of intelligence for internal France and external France.
08:48He warned the leaders of these political parties that Russia was capable of fomenting social unrest.
08:55And one of the ways of doing that was through social media.
08:59We've seen it in the past.
09:01We'll have to, unfortunately, wait and see what the intelligence services come up with
09:06as to who is stoking these particular unrest across France, particularly in the universities and in the high schools.
09:14Now, looking ahead, what are officials and student groups saying comes next?
09:20Is there a path to de-escalation?
09:22Or could France be heading for even larger protests, as you have hinted at, in the coming days and weeks?
09:31So far, the government in particular, the prime minister, has come up very hard line, as has the interior minister.
09:38They've said that there can be no violence.
09:40There can be no risk of protests getting out of hand.
09:44France has got a history of protests.
09:47Let's not forget 1968.
09:48It was the students at the universities here in Paris that provided momentum for that enormous change in French society.
09:56It's hard to see how this will end one day to the next, simply because we are already into this
10:02enormous fervour ahead of those crucial presidential elections.
10:07First round is due in April next year.
10:10So, as I said, difficult to see that it will wrap up any time soon.
10:14The journalist Catherine Field there, reporting from Paris for us.
10:19Many thanks, Catherine.
10:21Thank you, Gerhard.
