Le Pen Vows To Fund Schools as Police Fire Tear Gas at Violent Protesters at Paris

The leader of France’s National Rally, Marine Le Pen, is seizing on the widening student protests across France as an opportunity to boost her campaign for president.Ms. Le Pen said Tuesday that growing insecurity and the deterioration of working conditions is contributing to a shortage of teachers, leading to high school student protests. She promised to increase teacher salaries and restore security and serenity in France’s middle schools and high schools.More than 250,000 people rallied Tuesday at Paris and other cities to support students demanding more education funding. A protest that began last month at a single Paris-area school has grown with high schoolers blockading hundreds of schools and violent rioters smashing windows and setting fires. Students say complaints over deteriorating schools and a teacher shortage are not being addressed.Riot police on Tuesday fired tear gas at violent protesters at a Paris city square. More than 6,100 people — many minors — have been arrested across the country at protests in the past two weeks, the Associated Press reported. Some high schools have moved to online learning because of the protests.Labor unions have joined in the protests and marches in dozens of cities, which have also highlighted widespread discontent in France over rising prices and strained public finances. France’s term-limited president, Emmanuel Macron, has fueled much of the anger with budget cuts, which led to public sector strikes. Mr. Macron has avoided addressing the protests and spent Tuesday watching a new ballistic missile test launch from a nuclear-powered submarine.Ms. Le Pen, who leads in polls ahead of April’s presidential election, addressed the protests as she detailed her economic agenda. Ms. Le Pen claimed she can both cut taxes and fund new entitlements for high school and university students, including free driver’s licenses for young people with clean criminal records. She claimed her budget policies would also help reduce France’s nearly $4.2 trillion debt, which currently stands at 116 percent of GDP, or the equivalent of nearly $61,000 per citizen.Like others, Ms. Le Pen has blamed far-left political party La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, for fueling the protests. Unbowed’s leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is also competing in the presidential election, has courted disaffected youth and has said students have a right to “take revenge” against bad schooling.Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu also pointed fingers at Mr. Mélenchon. “The LFI and its ultra-Left proxies are at the origins of this movement,” Mr. Lecornu said. He said students have legitimate discontent that needs to be addressed “without giving in to politicized manipulations.” After 15 days of protests, Mr. Lecornu said concerns vary from school to school and need to be assessed objectively. “We cannot condemn violence without, at the same time, giving full space to debate within the high schools,” Mr. Lecornu said in an X post.Education Minister Édoard Geffrey is promising high school students will be able to express their concerns in schools as classes resume. The ministry said, starting Wednesday, a dialogue will open in all high schools for children to express their concerns and expectations.The weeks of protests have taxed police resources. Looking to avoid opportunistic violence, Paris’s police department has banned an anti-Israel march that was scheduled to take place Wednesday on the third anniversary of the Hamas terrorist attack against Israel. “In a context of heightened terrorist threat and while antisemitic acts remain at a historically high level in our country, such a demonstration on that day poses significant risks of disturbances to public order,” the city’s chief of police, Patrice Faure, announced. Mr. Faure said the request to block the protest came from Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez.President Trump on Tuesday blamed the ongoing protests on “out of control mass migration.” “This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post.

Le Pen Vows To Fund Schools as Police Fire Tear Gas at Violent Protesters at Paris

Le Pen Vows To Fund Schools as Police Fire Tear Gas at Violent Protesters at Paris

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