“And the Sorbonne, whose is it, it’s ours!” » : several hundred students gathered, Thursday, April 14, in a tense atmosphere with the police, in front of the emblematic university in Paris, occupied since the day before, to denounce the “false choice” what constitutes the duel between Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election. Since Wednesday, hundreds of students have been mobilizing in Paris, Nancy and even Reims, to protest against the result of the first round of the presidential election and to alert on ecological and social issues.
“Sorbonne, Sorbonne, antifa”, “No, no, no to Le Pen or Macron”, “Let us in!” », chanted the students gathered in front of the main entrance to the university, Place de la Sorbonne, blocked by a CRS cordon. Above, a large banner hanging from a balcony read: “Enraged Youth”.
At the windows of the building, where hung a banner “Sorbonne occupied against Macron, Le Pen and their world”students, some dressed in black and trying to hide their faces, wrote messages on a board for demonstrators who had come to take part in a general assembly.
Around 1:30 p.m., the CRS pushed back the students gathered in the square, causing a crowd movement and tear gas jets, without causing any injuries. The young people, some of whom had red eyes, stepped back singing “And everyone hates the police”. The students at the windows threw objects such as trash cans, fire extinguishers, bottles or even furniture, according to a journalist from Agence France-Press on the spot. Building “was always partially occupied” Thursday, according to the communication department of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne.
A general assembly was held inside the building in the afternoon, during which the students “have organized themselves for the perspectives to be given” to the movement, said Baptiste, a Paris-I student and UNEF activist, present in the premises with “a few hundred” students, he said. They called in particular for mobilization in the Paris region and for a new rally, Friday at 1 p.m., in front of the Sorbonne, he added. At the start of the evening, the atmosphere had become very calm again on the Place de la Sorbonne. In the surrounding streets, on the other hand, the police were trying to disperse dozens more demonstrators according to several videos posted on Twitter:
Multiple charges by the police against several hundred demonstrators. The voltage does not drop again… https://t.co/EKqGAQBt5I
Confusion near the university
Around 8 p.m., great confusion reigned in the vicinity of the university, police using tear gas to disperse the demonstrators who had come in large numbers to support the occupants of the Sorbonne, but also students from Ukraine who, not having the Ukrainian nationality, cannot enroll immediately in a French faculty to continue their university year.
Inside the building, police entered, letting out only some of the occupants. On his Twitter accountBlanche Monin films the thirty students gathered in a courtyard of La Sorbonne and affirms the wish of the occupants of “just go out in peace”.
“We just want to get out and are afraid of getting hitshe says. We are surrounded by more than 200 police officers and gendarmes, as well as 50 BRAV-M (brigades for the repression of motorized violent actions) who are sequestering us. We’re just protesting because we’re worried about our future, the planet, and the rise of far-right ideas. »
“Young people are faced with a false choice”
“Macron and Le Pen do not represent us at all. They are two equally bad options and we are tired of having to choose between the plague and cholera”explains Clémence, 23, a master’s student in English at the Sorbonne, her face covered with a white scarf. “We wonder what future we will have in a few years. We are worried about the climate, precariousness, the political climate. »
“We are going to have five years of ultra-liberalism or fascism. It is a disaster for our generation. It is felt that this election was stolen from us and it is our future that is being stolen from us. We react »adds Eli, a master’s student in philosophy at the Sorbonne, who also does not wish to give his last name.
The communication department of Paris-I explained that the courses were “kept at a distance” until “Saturday April 16 included”. All of the sites (about ten, including that of Tolbiac) are “closed to students but open to staff”.
In addition to the Sorbonne, premises of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), on the Jourdan campus (14and arrondissement of Paris), are occupied. The entrances to the Sciences Po Paris campus in Nancy were blocked on Wednesday and eighty people, according to the prefecture, gathered on Thursday in front of the Reims branch.
In Paris, one hundred and fifty students blocked the entrance to Science Po at 27, rue Saint-Guillaume, where Mr. Macron notably studied. Banners displayed the following slogans: “No neighborhood for fachos, no fachos in our neighborhoods”, “No to the far right”, “Antifascist feminists”. “Young people are faced with a false choice, two options which, in both cases, are harmful to them”regrets Baptiste, 22, a third-year student and union member of Solidaires, a union that supports this movement. “It’s a wind of revolt and rejection of the situation”he continued.
“We are part of this continuity, by mobilizing this school which is an emblematic place of Macronie, its system, its ideology and the people who make it. It is important for us to show that, even in these places, we are mobilizing. »
Around 3:30 p.m., 30 to 40 far-right activists, members of the Cocarde Étudiante, Action Française, UNI and Generation Z, armed “handles of pickaxes, umbrellas and hand gassers”attacked the students still present, who ran away without being injured, he said.
“The blockade of Sciences Po has just been evacuated by us”, later tweeted the Student Roundelshowing in a video young people removing banners and barricades.