Youth protests in France | The dangerous spark

The school protests also resulted in property damage and garbage cans burning. There have now been hundreds of arrests. Photo: dpa For several days, students have been demonstrating against overcrowded classrooms, unfilled teaching positions, dilapidated school buildings and the widespread lack of educational resources in France. But what dominates the news are the clashes on the streets and the images of a few garbage cans burning. The goal is clear: to push the topic of poor education out of the media - and to bring the debate about "public safety" to the fore.

This is a conscious strategy. What really worries those in power is not the possible blockade of a school for a few hours. It is the possible “infection”. The fear that a student from Montauban, Grenoble or Saint-Brieuc might recognize his own situation in that of a student from Saint-Denis or Villejuif: the same lack of resources, the same overcrowded classrooms, the same feeling that public schools are deteriorating a little further every year. This makes it just as difficult to get students back into class as it is to get toothpaste back into the tube.

The French daily newspaper "L'Humanité" was founded in 1904 by the socialist Jean Jaurès. Originally intended as a mouthpiece for the socialist movement, it has consistently represented left-wing and socialist positions ever since. She advocates for social justice, workers' rights and global peace.

The newspaper is the former central organ of the French Communist Party (PCF). In 1999, the explicit reference to the party was dropped. Since 2004, 40 percent of the newspaper has belonged to the PCF, friends and employees each hold ten percent, the Society of Friends holds 20 percent and large companies such as savings banks, the broadcaster TF1 and the arms company Lagardère hold the rest. Today, around 60 editors work at "L'Humanité"; the newspaper has around 40,000 subscribers. The press festival, the Fête de L’Humanité, which was held for the first time in 1930, is still an important event in social life in France today.

Critics of school protests appear to be most effective when they are limited to a clearly defined category: the “problem of young people from the suburbs.” It is emphasized that these young people have a migrant background. In this fight for sovereignty of interpretation, right-wing and right-wing extremist media play a central role. The way certain cases are handled is revealing.

When Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of Saint-Denis, met the students of his town who had sparked the riots, there was immediate excitement. The media reported for hours and accused him of not supporting the students but of fomenting unrest and violence, if not of even provoking it himself.

In contrast, the tone changed when Mediapart, a respected news portal, published an investigation that uncovered anti-Semitic statements made by Jordan Bardella (one of the leaders of the far-right Rassemblement National - d.R.) from his youth. Those who targeted Bagayoko based on manipulated video footage are now calling for “thorough journalistic research” in the Bardella case.

The aim is to anchor the idea that the residents of small towns, rural areas and suburbs - the banlieues - supposedly have nothing in common by constantly portraying working-class neighborhoods and their residents as a "special problem" that appears alien to the rest of the country. Their concerns are similar: access to public services, the dilapidated infrastructure and impoverishment.

The nervousness of the government and the right-wing media is understandable: youth mobilizations have always been the trigger for major social upheavals in France. Young people have a unique driving force: they mobilize parents and teachers and create a rapprochement that governments fear, especially as social discontent simmers. If high schools are blocked, it signals that the entire society is at risk of "overturning."

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