Some 86,000 joined marches outside Paris in the morning, according to the interior ministry. The capital’s demonstration was expected to draw a larger crowd in the afternoon.
The protesters demand more funding and better working conditions in high schools. The movement began in working-class Paris suburbs and has since spread nationwide, becoming a political issue as the campaign for next year’s presidential election heats up.
“I hope we can provide a political response to a very real anxiety among high school students,” Lecornu conceded.
On Monday, a 15-year-old boy in northern France had his hand blown apart by a grenade. The local prosecutor said he could not “say for certain whether the student picked up the grenade or whether it was thrown at him.”
In Tours, a 16-year-old lost an eye after being struck by a projectile that the prosecutor said may have been a sub-lethal riot police weapon.
Boris Vallaud, leader of the center-left Socialist group in parliament, said his lawmakers would introduce legislation addressing the use of sub-lethal weapons, which can cause irreversible harm, during high school protests.