The French government said Wednesday it would stop using stun grenades to police student protests, after a 15-year-old boy lost his hand during a clash with riot police. The move came as a youth-led movement over run-down schools stretched into its fourth week and spread to universities and even across the border into Belgium.
How it started
The protests began on Sept. 17, when high school students blockaded the entrances to their schools in Créteil, a suburb southeast of Paris, Al Jazeera reported. Students were complaining about crumbling buildings, missing teachers and staff, and overcrowded classrooms. The blockades spread quickly through the Paris suburbs and then nationwide.
On Tuesday, hundreds of thousands of students, teachers, parents and union members marched across France. The Interior Ministry put the crowd at 250,000; organizers said nearly twice that. According to France 24, lessons were fully or partly suspended at 891 of France's roughly 3,700 high schools that day, and about 40% of public universities were disrupted. French outlets reported Wednesday that turnout at the school blockades had dropped noticeably from Tuesday's peak.
Police tactics under scrutiny
The police response has become a central issue. Al Jazeera reported that more than 6,000 protesters have been arrested since the movement began, most of them under 18, and that about 210 teenagers and more than 700 officers have been injured, according to officials. France's police watchdog has opened at least 10 misconduct investigations. Separately, prosecutors opened an attempted-murder investigation after an officer was filmed appearing to hold a 17-year-old's head underwater during an arrest in Belfort, France 24 reported. Amnesty International France urged authorities to avoid excessive force.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told lawmakers he would not change the national policing strategy, even as left-wing parties called for his resignation.
The government's response
In a televised address Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu denied that police had been told to crack down on teenagers and said his government would present measures addressing students' complaints by the end of October. Earlier in the day, he set aside half a day of class time for students and staff to air their concerns, a gesture student union leaders dismissed as a stalling tactic. Student unions have asked to meet Lecornu directly and are calling for new demonstrations Thursday, with several teacher unions planning strikes.
The dispute has also taken on a diplomatic edge. France summoned Iran's ambassador on Wednesday over what it called an Iranian disinformation campaign about the protests, a day after Tehran summoned France's envoy and accused Paris of mistreating demonstrators.