Violent student unrest intensified across France on Friday as riot police clashed with teenagers in several cities, roughly 400 high schools remained shuttered and authorities said some 2,000 people had been arrested since the protests began — while the government increasingly blamed the country’s hard left.
Tear gas filled streets in Strasbourg, protesters fired fireworks toward police lines in Marseille, and garbage bins were set ablaze in Rennes, while clashes also broke out in Paris, reported by Fox News Digital Thursday, when hundreds had been arrested as school blockades and clashes spread across the country.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told RTL radio Friday that approximately 2,000 people — most of them teenagers — had been arrested since the protests erupted. He said parents whose children damage property should be required to pay reparations, according to Reuters.
"In the streets, the children are in danger," Education Minister Édouard Geffray told BFM TV.
LFI lawmakers rejected the allegation and accused President Emmanuel Macron's government of politicizing the protests ahead of France's 2027 presidential election.
The government has now deployed specialized riot police and mobile gendarmes as authorities struggle to contain the unrest,spread beyond France. Students in Liège, Belgium, began demonstrating Thursday, and high schools there were closed Friday.
Fox News Digital reached out to the French government, the Education Ministry, the Interior Ministry and La France Insoumise for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.
Tyler Speicher and Reuters contributed to this story.