Five Unions Invited, No High Schools: Lecornu Talks Leave Pupils Out
France's prime minister is due to discuss protest security with five unions, but school organisations have not been invited. Local curfews are already in force ahead of separate student and Yellow Vest protests on Saturday.
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French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu is due to meet five trade unions on October 21 as local curfews and fresh protest plans sharpen pressure on his government.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez is also expected at Wednesday's talks, which bring together five of France's national trade union confederations: the CFDT, CGT, FO, CFTC and CFE-CGC. High-school organisations have not been invited, although the government intends to discuss pupils' demands. The CFDT and CGT have criticised their exclusion.
Protests that began with high-school students have widened into anger over living costs, bringing together groups with different organisers and different calendars. Students and people identifying with the Yellow Vest movement plan to demonstrate on October 24. The unions have called their own mobilisation for November 5.
In his letter inviting the unions, Lecornu said the talks would address "the ways and means to guarantee the indispensable freedom to demonstrate" against attempts to associate protests with "unacceptable acts". He has also promised a "massive" security deployment for Saturday.
The meeting's outcome, including whether Lecornu will offer concrete commitments, is not yet known. Nor has an independently established account emerged of who organised the weekend violence. Lecornu has accused ultra-left radical groups of pursuing an "insurrectionary plan".
