By Layli Foroudi
SAINT-DENIS, France, Oct 7 (Reuters) – In a video that has gone viral on social media, Bally Bagayoko, the mayor of the French town of Saint-Denis, stands facing police at a march in Paris on Tuesday, shielding young protesters and shouting “stop.”
Bagayoko said he has been supporting the students in his working-class Parisian suburb and on Tuesday was asking the police not to charge.
“They had decided to charge and effectively go after the students, many of whom had shown no aggressive behaviour whatsoever toward the police officers,” Bagayoko, who is part of the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI), told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday at his town hall office in Saint-Denis, on the northern outskirts of Paris.
In the end, the police fired tear gas at the group, including the mayor, he said.
The wave of student protests, which began in Paris’ marginalised suburbs, has been going on for more than two weeks and has exposed widespread public anger six months ahead of an election to replace French President Emmanuel Macron.
There have been more than 6,000 arrests and dozens of student injuries since the protests began. Rights groups and unions accuse the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flashball guns. Authorities say hundreds of police officers have also been injured, schools have been burned or ransacked, and teachers and members of the public have been attacked.
The town of Saint-Denis, where poverty levels are more than double the national average, was one of the first sites of student protests in late September over overcrowded and unsanitary classrooms, teacher shortages and unequal opportunities.
“Protests are not new here, they happen at every start of the academic year,” Bagayoko said. “The Republican promise (of equality) — in particular for the working-class neighbourhoods, and also rural areas — is not respected.”
He said the government should prioritise investing in education and levy heavier taxes on billionaires.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Wednesday that the government would review demands made by students and present proposals at the end of October, but gave no details.
The government has suggested that LFI politicians were behind the protests, an accusation that Bagayoko dismissed as insulting to the young protesters.
A father of four, he said that “the high school children who were in the street could be my children … it is my responsibility to be at their side.”
(Reporting by Layli Foroudi, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)
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