Presidential: at the Sorbonne, the ENS and Sciences Po, hundreds of students against the “false choice” of the second round – Le Monde

Students block access to the Sciences Po site located rue Saint-Guillaume, April 14, 2022. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP “And the Sorbonne, who owns it, it belongs to us! “: 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” which 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 massed in front of the main entrance to the university, Place de la Sorbonne, blocked by a CRS cordon. Above, one could read on a large banner hung on a balcony: “Enraged Youth”. Several hundred students participated in a general meeting on Wednesday and “the Sorbonne building was still partially occupied” on Thursday, according to the communication department of the University of Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne. A banner on the Sorbonne University, Thursday April 14, 2022. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP At the windows of the building, where a banner “Sorbonne occupied against Macron, Le Pen and their world” was hung, 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. The students massed in front of the main entrance to the university, place de la Sorbonne, Thursday April 14, 2022. FRANCOIS MORI / AP Around 1:30 p.m., the CRS pushed back the students gathered in the square, causing a movement crowds and tear gas jets, without causing any injuries. The youngsters, some of whom had red eyes, backed off while chanting “And everybody 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. Read also: “I’m afraid for my future and for that of the planet”: what young people think before the presidential election “Youth is facing a false choice” “Macron and Le Pen do not represent us at all. These are two options as bad as each other 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 surname. In front of the Sorbonne University, Thursday April 14, 2022. EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP The Paris-I communication department explained that the courses were “maintained remotely” until “Saturday April 16 inclusive”. All of the sites (a dozen, 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 (14th 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 fascists, no fascists in our neighborhoods”, “No to the extreme 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 which 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. “Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers “In the second round, Emmanuel Macron could have trouble recovering the young vote” Le Monde and AFP