World

Appeasing France's Protesters

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

October 20, 1998 / 9:46 AM EDT / CBS

After another nationwide protest, France's education minister is considering measures to appease high school students who are demanding better classroom conditions.

last week's protest

Claude Allegre was meeting again Wednesday with student leaders and was expected to make an announcement later on the measures, a day after nearly 300,000 youths took to the streets across the country.

Tuesday's marches, however, were smaller than ones last week that drew an estimated half million students.

Despite their smaller numbers, rioters threw stones at police and smashed windows in central Paris as tens of thousands high school pupils marched through Paris demanding more teachers and smaller classes.

AP
Police detain a young man at the start of the student demonstration in Paris.

Security had been beefed up around the country, especially in Paris, and 110 students were arrested nationwide. Eighty-five people were slightly injured in Paris.

More than 4,000 police, many in riot gear, were mobilized for the Paris march, which was monitored on televisions in the basement of police headquarters.

But small groups of troublemakers managed to evade the controls and pelted helmeted riot police with stones and bottles, smashed the windows of half a dozen businesses and looted one shop.

AP
An unidentified youth throws a stone at riot police in Paris.

However, in a country where student movements have sometimes spun out of control, most famously in 1968, ministers hope that Tuesday's strike will be the last and that calm will return to the country.