France Concedes 3,000 Teachers and Brussels Catches the Protest
The education minister Édouard Geffray has promised 3,000 extra supply teachers within days, directed at the roughly 500 schools in greatest need — the first material concession of a three-week movement in which 6,877 people have been arrested, 86% of them under eighteen. In Brussels, tens of thousands marched against austerity and riot police used tear gas and water cannon.
The French concession followed the largest day yet. On Thursday 71,000 protested nationwide with 24,000 at the Bastille; a school was ransacked in Bordeaux and a deputy head beaten in Marseille. By Friday only 140 of France’s 3,500 lycées were closed, a sharp fall, though another day of action is called for Tuesday. What makes this a European story rather than two national ones is what the Belgian protesters said. The socialist and Christian unions marched from Central to South station under the slogan “stay out of our pockets”; police say the main rally was peaceful and that “groups of troublemakers were responsible for serious incidents before and after the march”, with wooden beams, bottles and bins thrown and baton charges in reply. Crowd estimates differ sharply — police counted 30,000 and the unions 50,000. Young people there told reporters they were inspired by what they had seen in France. It follows clashes in Liège in which more than two hundred were arrested and dozens of police injured. Two governments trying to cut deficits, two sets of students who have decided the bill is landing on them, and a pattern that is now crossing borders faster than either government is moving.