How do you respond to the anger of high school students, especially when you didn’t really see it coming? How can we respond to the anger of high school students, fundamentally, when the government only has a few months left? How to respond to the anger of high school students, when emotion often supplants reason? Sébastien Lecornu, accustomed to power, knows that protest movements coming from farmers or young people are the most feared. The first because they can block the country. The latter because they are difficult to control. In his office all the country’s problems arise. He already had two very urgent subjects to manage: passing the 2027 budget while trying to protect the French from the exorbitant cost of fuel, and avoiding a financial crisis feared by Bercy. A third has therefore been added to the top of the pile: high school students, whose grievances are more and more numerous, signs of a youth who does not project, or poorly, into the future.
The government must therefore respond on the merits on the one hand, while managing the maintenance of order on the other. The balance is tenuous. The images of clashes with the police near high schools shocked public opinion. But studying in good conditions, with correct timetables and with absent teachers replaced, is one of the demands that can be heard. “The government is focused and vigilant on both fronts,” confides a ministerial advisor, who testifies to the difficulty of giving “a political translation to anxiety”.
A massive “Act III”?
How many high school students will be in the streets this Tuesday for what they call “Act III”? Undoubtedly much more than Monday, which saw a fairly clear decline in the number of establishments disrupted by the movement. But this Tuesday, large-scale demonstrations are expected throughout the territory. On social networks, the calls to mobilize are massive, suggesting that it will be a Black Tuesday. Unions will follow, political parties too.
Will this be the high point of this high school movement or will there be an act IV, an act V, etc.? ? A former parliamentarian, familiar with power, is betting optimistically that anger will gradually calm down, counting both on parents to reason with their offspring, the weather which will cool, and on the Prime Minister whom he says is “active in not only having a security response”. This response came in part in a letter addressed to several ministers and made public Sunday evening. The head of government lists five major projects on which he wants the first decisions before the end of October. He writes in bold that he wants “visible follow-up to the words of high school students”.
Lecornu expected
Sébastien Lecornu will also speak this Tuesday afternoon during the government questions session at the National Assembly. He who is fleeing the media could also express himself more visibly before the end of the week, a sign of the seriousness of the situation. Press interview? Press conference? Nothing is fixed. “It’s about time,” jokes someone familiar with Emmanuel Macron. The President of the Republic considers that there may be legitimate demands among young people. He said this last week during an official visit to Spain while pointing out the responsibility of the politicians who stir up fears, implicitly denouncing what he describes as the exploitation of La France insoumise.
“He is in solidarity with some of the demands that he himself made, such as the replacement of teacher absences which had been one of the subjects of the 2022 campaign,” deciphers the presidential entourage. “A large number of people who must offer answers are more concerned with the continuation than with the explanation of what was done,” continues the same person, relaying the annoyance of Emmanuel Macron, who in his time had also launched a citizens’ convention on school schedules. But at the end of the five-year term, where the possibilities for structural action are fewer, can anger be appeased? “The ballot box will channel anger,” thinks someone close to Sébastien Lecornu, in reference to the presidential election next April. But high school students don’t necessarily have the same schedule.
