00:00Why is France being dominated by protests?
00:02Hundreds of thousands of students, parents and teachers are taking to the streets across France.
00:07Most of the protests are peaceful, but some violent skirmishes have been met with baton charges and tear gas from
00:13riot police.
00:14About 300 protesters and 750 police officers have been injured.
00:19Lessons at 2,000 schools have been disrupted, with many closing completely,
00:22and the movement is showing no signs of slowing down.
00:26What has triggered the riots?
00:27The main cause seems to be the ongoing lack of central government funding for education.
00:31On the 1st of October, French Prime Minister Sébastien Le Corneau offered a 1.7% rise in education spending,
00:38taking it to almost 66 billion euros, or around 56 billion pounds, said The Telegraph.
00:44But crucially, this is below the rate of inflation and excludes teacher pensions.
00:48Traditionally, education has been the largest item in the French budget,
00:51but this year it's expected to be outstripped by servicing the national debt.
00:55Another point of contention is the shortage of teachers and support staff.
00:59From 2024 to 2025, nearly 10% of teaching hours in public secondary education went untaught,
01:06according to data from the Education Ministry.
01:09This was mostly down to a failure to find substitute teachers,
01:12or sometimes because of complete school closures.
01:14Students have had to navigate overcrowded classes of up to 40 children in crumbling buildings,
01:19said The Guardian.
01:20Ceilings partially collapsing during class, leaks, cockroaches and buildings in disrepair
01:26are fairly common experiences and have been worsened by unbearable temperatures in classrooms
01:31during heatwaves in May and June.
01:33There is also anger at the equivalent of UCAS,
01:35which is thought to be an opaque and difficult system for students to navigate.
01:39The government has strongly condemned the violence and responded forcefully,
01:42said the New York Times.
01:44On the 2nd of October, France's Justice Minister, Gérald Darmenin,
01:47said on X that he would pursue a firm criminal response
01:50and hold parents of minors civilly liable wherever possible.
01:54In an effort to placate the protesters,
01:56Education Minister, Édouard Geoffrey,
01:59has announced that the government would scrap plans
02:01to increase some higher education registration fees
02:04and would introduce a new platform
02:06where students could voice their thoughts on education reform.
02:09But Geoffrey has also said the protests have been taken hostage by ultra-left groups,
02:14primarily accusing left-wing party La France Insoumise for stoking the violence.
02:19The group's leader and French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon
02:22has strongly denied the claim.
02:24And we cannot forget that the French presidential elections are only months away,
02:28said the BBC.
02:29These protests, like many youth movements, are unpredictable and shapeless
02:33and have no clear structure that would allow for negotiation.
02:36They will have any centrist candidate in cold sweats.
