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A French mayor was filmed laughing and dancing with demonstrators outside a school as violent protests over under-resourced schools continue across France, with hundreds arrested.
A French mayor was filmed laughing and dancing with demonstrators outside a school as violent protests continue to grip the country. The demonstrations and blockades, which began last week and coincided on Tuesday with a broader public-sector strike, have become a political flashpoint at a sensitive moment for France. Police have made hundreds of arrests during clashes with young protesters, while authorities reported dozens of injuries.
Mayor Faces Backlash Over Protest Video
Now, the left-wing mayor of a Parisian suburb is facing backlash after he was filmed engaging with student protesters. Footage shows Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of the Seine-Saint-Denis suburb, laughing and dancing outside a blocked-off school, while demonstrators cheer him on. In the background, flames appear to be burning near the building's gates.
Politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party have joined the demonstrations, with Bagayoko being quoted as saying that violence is sometimes legitimate. Bagayoko is a member of the France Unbowed party led by presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Other members have been seen outside blockaded school buildings, urging youngsters on using megaphones.
In turn, the Paris Police Prefecture has filed a complaint against Mr Bagayoko for incitement to commit a crime. Other officials and politicians have denounced the party for rhetoric they said was stoking students' anger.
Violence Escalates Across French Cities
It comes after a separate video captured the moment a firefighter became a human torch after he tried to put out a fire caused by protesters. Social media footage shows an object in flames on a street in Bordeaux during demonstrations. As the firefighter approaches the item to put out the fire, the flames suddenly spread up his leg, setting him alight.
On Thursday, the government will unveil the country's 2027 budget, which is expected to involve spending cuts aimed at easing pressure on government finances. In Saint-Denis, a large suburb north of Paris, students stood outside the gates of their school near a fire that had been set as police looked on, while in Lyon and Lille television images showed people throwing projectiles at lines of police officers.
There are cockroaches and rats everywhere in the school, Fadila, a 17-year-old student, told Reuters. She said temperatures in classrooms could swing from sweltering to below freezing, depending on the weather. We cannot work in those conditions, she said.
According to the OECD global policy forum, French spending on education was in the middle of the range among member countries and increased between 2015 and 2022, but its share of the budget has slightly decreased.
Injuries and Arrests Mount Amid Protests
France's Education Minister Edouard Geffray told RTL radio that 76 people had been injured, both students and staff, since the demonstrations began. He did not specify who the personnel were or the severity of the injuries. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told broadcaster BFM that some 440 people were detained over the high school protests on Tuesday alone, most of them minors. Nunez said there were seven incidents in which people threw hydrochloric acid at law enforcement officers.
The government has criticised violence that has broken out at some of the demonstrations but said that difficulties in high schools should be acknowledged and addressed. High schools are meant to be open and to share knowledge. They are not meant to be blockaded or to have trash cans set on fire, French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters in Madrid.
Gamze, a 17-year-old student in Saint-Denis, said students in the historically working-class suburb were treated unfairly compared with students elsewhere. It is always us who are suffering when, in Paris or in the countryside, they are not in such a situation, she told Reuters.
Police arrested a French protester after threatening to burn down the Elysee Palace in Paris. Hard-left activist Ritchy Thibault called on students to burn down the Elysee and to start a revolution.
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Bally Bagayoko France Unbowed Paris Protests Emmanuel Macron Seine-Saint-Denis School Blockades Laurent Nunez
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