France Set for Nationwide Strikes, as School Protests Escalate

France was bracing for nationwide demonstrations on Tuesday after union leaders vowed to join high school students who have spent two weeks blockading their schools over understaffing, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings. The planned demonstrations are a litmus test of the longevity of a protest movement that began last month in a single school in the suburbs of Paris and quickly spread to hundreds of schools across the country. Some demonstrators have barricaded school doors, set buildings on fire and shot fireworks at police officers, though many protests have been peaceful.

Roughly 6,000 people have been arrested since the protests began and about 270 high school students and school staff have been injured, as well as nearly 470 police officers. The French education minister, Édouard Geffray, has called the protesters’ demands “legitimate,” but said student-led violence had gone too far: “No demand can justify such acts,” Mr. Geffray said last week. Others, including a major union of French judges and prosecutors and a prominent human rights group, have accused the police of using disproportionate force against students as young as 14.

The demonstrations have also heightened scrutiny of a far-left party, France Unbowed, whose leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, could make the runoff in next year’s presidential election, according to recent polling. Centrist government officials and far-right leaders have accused France Unbowed, which backs the protesters, of fomenting the violence — an accusation it denies. The students’ complaints include frustration at a state-run website that students must use to apply for higher education programs.

The site, called Parcoursup, has been called opaque and impersonal, in part because it has left tens of thousands of applicants waiting for months before learning if they have earned a place. Catherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradic, reporters for The Times based in Paris, cover the ongoing situation. On Sunday night, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu sent a letter to several cabinet ministers, pledging among other things to fill vacant teaching positions, identify urgent problems with buildings, and make improvements to Parcoursup. That did not quell the protests.

On Monday, students demonstrated again at hundreds of schools across the country.

法国正准备在周二举行全国性示威活动，此前工会领袖誓言加入高中生的抗议行列，这些学生已连续两周封锁学校，抗议学校人手不足、教室拥挤和校舍破旧。此次计划中的示威是对上个月始于巴黎郊区一所学校、迅速蔓延至全国数百所学校的抗议运动持久性的一次检验。一些示威者封锁了学校大门，纵火焚烧校舍，并向警察发射烟花，不过许多抗议活动是和平的。自抗议开始以来，约有6000人被捕，约270名高中生和学校工作人员受伤，另有近470名警察受伤。法国教育部长爱德华·热夫雷称抗议者的要求“合理”，但表示学生主导的暴力行为已过分：“没有任何要求能为这种行为辩护，”热夫雷上周表示。其他团体，包括法国法官和检察官的主要联盟以及一个知名人权组织，指控警察对年仅14岁的学生使用了过度武力。这些示威活动还加剧了对极左翼政党“法国不屈”的审查，该党领袖让-吕克·梅朗雄可能在明年的总统选举中进入第二轮，最近的民调显示如此。中翼政府官员和极右翼领袖指责支持抗议者的“法国不屈”煽动暴力，该党否认这一指控。学生的投诉还包括对一个州立网站的不满，学生必须使用该网站申请高等教育项目。该网站名为Parcoursup，被批评为不透明和冷漠，部分原因在于它让数万名申请者在等待数月后才能得知是否被录取。驻巴黎的《泰晤士报》记者凯瑟琳·波特和塞戈勒·勒·斯特拉迪克报道了持续的局势。周日晚，总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努向几位内阁部长发信，承诺填补空缺的教师职位、识别校舍的紧急问题，并改进Parcoursup。但这并未平息抗议。周一，学生再次在全国数百所学校示威。