In three weeks of blockades and marches, students have been photographed holding signs bearing slogans that capture both specific grievances and a deeper angst. “Pas d’avenir, pas de calme” (No future, no calm). “Diplômés aujourd’hui, précaires demain” (Graduates today, insecure tomorrow). “Vous détruisez notre futur, on bloque votre présent” (You destroy our future, we block your present). The common theme, the Guardian reports, is a fear that this generation’s future will be defined by poorly paid, unstable jobs, unaffordable living costs and steadily decaying public infrastructure.
In the low-income Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, teenagers have shown reporters pictures of broken chairs and desks, holes in walls, leaking ceilings, mould, shattered toilets and defective audiovisual equipment. Some have gone months without key teachers.
The protests are not confined to France. Similar concerns underlie mass housing demonstrations in Spain, where twentysomethings in Madrid and Barcelona are protesting that a monthly rental on a one-bedroom flat costs an entire median salary.
The French government’s response has been heavy: riot police, teargas, baton charges and stun grenades have been deployed. More than 250 pupils have been injured, along with about 100 school staff and 750 police. One teenager lost a hand from a stun grenade, and another lost the sight in one eye.
Kitty Sayers, who went to school in France, noted that the country’s republic “was born of insurrection and has never forgotten it”. In French schools, protest is “taught as a legally framed, fundamental right and a civic responsibility”. The Guardian’s Jon Henley, reporting from Paris, recorded a 30-second Instagram post that had been viewed almost 540,000 times, with young people in France the largest single group of viewers.