French Student Protests Enter Third Week as Budget Debate Starts
French high school students were set to take to the streets again on Tuesday, October 13, extending their protest movement into a third week, Bloomberg reported. A protest organized by the main student and teacher unions was scheduled for the afternoon in Paris's 13th arrondissement, an event that could gauge whether the movement is running out of steam.
At their peak last Tuesday, the protests brought more than 250,000 people onto streets across France demanding greater resources for education. Students are protesting understaffing, overcrowding and chaotic class schedules. The movement has sometimes turned violent, with clashes with police leading to close to 7,000 arrests. Emergency measures announced by the government last week addressed some concerns but did not quell the discontent.
The protests coincided with the start of budget debates in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu is seeking parliamentary backing to sharply restrain overall spending and pare the fiscal shortfall to 5% of economic output in 2027 — a target missed this year. Opposition groups that have twice toppled prime ministers over budget plans in the last two years are reluctant to compromise, less than seven months before presidential elections.
Worries about France's finances are set to drag on through the 2027 presidential election and beyond; the market selloff of recent weeks has already sent borrowing costs to levels not seen in almost a quarter century, and the risk premium on French 10-year debt over Italy's hit a record last Friday.
(Source: Bloomberg)
Source: Bloomberg
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 巴黎波旁宫（法国国民议会），ZeusUpsistos摄，Wikimedia Commons，CC BY-SA 4.0
