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Sciences po Paris Reopened After Student Blockade, Protests Continue Across France
PARIS – Police intervened Thursday morning to clear a blockade at the Sciences Po Paris campus, part of a nationwide wave of protests stemming from a social media-driven call to “block everything.” Approximately sixty students temporarily blocked the entrance to the prestigious university from 6:30 am to 8 am, according to an AFP journalist.
“This morning, we had to unlock a certain number of higher education establishments, in particular (…) to Sciences Po,” Paris police prefect Laurent Nuñez stated on cnews.Students also blocked access to the Grands Moulins campus of Paris Cité University.Elsewhere in France,demonstrations continued. An attempt to block a Lactalis site in Loire-Atlantique was defused through dialogue with gendarmes. In Isère, around fifty people attempted to block traffic in Saint-Martin-d’Hères and Grenoble, resulting in three arrests for obstructing traffic, according to the prefecture.
Police also evacuated approximately fifty demonstrators near Saint-Étienne who had attempted to disrupt air traffic and previously tried to access France 3 loire, but were stopped by a police cordon. Lyon 2 university remained closed “to preserve the safety of people and goods.” in Aix-en-Provence, 25 people slowed access to the A8 motorway with a filtering operation on the Arc roundabout.
Wednesday saw nearly 200,000 people participate in protests across France, resulting in 850 actions reported by the Ministry of the Interior – 596 rallies and 253 blockades. Police made 675 arrests nationwide, including 280 in Paris, with 549 individuals placed in police custody (183 in Paris). The ministry reported 34 minor injuries among police officers. Nuñez described the police response as “a success.”
