FRANCE: Continuing student protests over university reform laws result in minor clashes with police

Around 300 students protested on Thursday (November 8) outside the prestigious French university, the Sorbonne, against a law passed in August giving greater autonomy to universities. The law, which injects 1 billion euros (1.46 billion U.S. dollars) into higher education, grants universities more freedom to choose their own students and opens the way for some private sector financing to boost public funding. Student unions say the law does nothing to address student poverty and will create a two-tier system that focuses funding on a few elite institutions. However, the government accused them of merely jumping on the bandwagon of demonstrations over pension reform and sees the blockages as political. Students chanted slogans like 'We want kisses' showing the non-violent nature of their protest, but there were also some minor clashes with police forces. Other chants as 'Police everywhere, justice nowhere' could also be heard. Police intervened overnight at the universities of Tolbiac in Paris and the western city of Nantes to evacuate students who were occupying buildings, police and student union sources said. The Higher Education Ministry said roughly 10 of France's 85 universities were blocked overnight, while student unions said the number was around 40. Thousands of students have gathered in meetings, known as 'general assemblies' at campuses across France this week to decide what action to take. Student protests have caused serious problems for previous governments, most recently in 2005 when then Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin was forced to withdraw plans that would have made it easier to hire and fire young workers. The current protests are on a far smaller scale but they are growing and, combined with strikes by transport and energy workers, they could bolster the first major challenge to Sarkozy's programme of economic and social reform.

ITN Source | November 9, 2007

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