At the Sorbonne, students refuse to choose between Marine Le Pen or Emmanuel Macron

Published on: 04/15/2022 – 08:34 French students demonstrated on Thursday in front of the Sorbonne and other universities, expressing their disillusionment with the choice offered in the presidential election. They called in particular for mobilization in the Paris region and for a new rally on Friday. Students who occupied the Sorbonne to make their voices heard in the between-two rounds of the presidential election occupied the university buildings on Thursday, April 14, during a day of rallies interspersed with incidents. All the students of the occupation have decided to leave,” Baptiste, a second-year philosophy student at the Sorbonne and Unef activist, who participated in the movement inside, told AFP on Thursday evening. of the building.”It followed several pieces of news that were transmitted to us”, and in particular “the fact that the next outings that we would make would result in police custody”, “that there would be an intervention by the gendarmerie from 10 p.m.”, and that “we no longer had the presidency” of the university as interlocutor, which “contributed to generating a lot of fear”, he explained. Very substantial police force facing the #Sorbonne after 27 hours of occupation. Access to the interior is now blocked by barriers around the buildings. Several hundred people are inside. pic.twitter.com/tBoeXI7GmK— Remy Buisine (@RemyBuisine) April 14, 2022 “We left as a group and the police made like a trap around us to take us to the sidewalk”, he detailed Some of the young people remained in the building, however, according to students. A video was circulating on social media claiming that 40 students were still at the university, being held back by the police. A police source confirmed to AFP Thursday evening that there were still students inside, without specifying their number or the reason for their presence. >> To read: Report: at the faculty of Saint-Denis, the useful vote in the second round is not an option Hundreds of students are mobilizing in Paris, Nancy or Reims Outside, the police used tear gas on Thursday evening to disperse demonstrators who had gathered near the Pantheon for the reception and regularization of refugee students, not far from the Sorbonne, according to an AFP journalist on the spot. Some formed small sporadic groups around the police, who repelled them. At midday, several hundred students, 400 according to the police headquarters, had gathered at the Place de la Sorbonne to participate in a general assembly with the students inside, but had remained blocked by a cord of CRS. The students with the windows had thrown objects such as dustbin or furniture, noted AFP. The CRS had pushed the young people back into the square, causing a crowd movement and throwing tear gas, without causing any injuries. Since Wednesday, hundreds of students have been mobilizing in Paris, Nancy or Reims, to protest against the result of the first round of the presidential election and to alert on ecological and social issues. At the Sorbonne, a general assembly was held Wednesday, in which hundreds of young people had taken part and at the end of which a certain number of them – between 60 and 100 according to students – had decided to stay.All the sites of the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (about ten, including that of Tolbiac) were “closed to students but open to staff” on Thursday, according to the communication department. “Youth is facing a false choice” A few streets away, at Sciences- In Paris, some 150 students blocked the entrance to the school at 27 rue Saint-Guillaume on Thursday. Banners indicated: “No neighborhood for fachos, no fachos in our neighborhoods” or “No to the far right”. -Po remain open and operate normally,” Sciences Po told AFP. “We are here mainly to fight the far right, because today we are frightened by the percentage of votes that Marine Le Pen in the election”, explained to AFP Sarah Bonvalet-Younès, president of Unef Sciences-Po. “Young people are faced with a false choice, two options which in both cases are harmful to them”, added Baptiste, 22, a 3rd year student, union member at Solidaires Sciences-Po. Around 3:30 p.m., 30 to 40 far-right activists armed with “pickaxe handles, umbrellas and hand gassers”, attacked the students still present, who left running without being injured, he said. “The blockade of Sciences-Po has just been evacuated. cured by us,” tweeted La Cocarde Étudiante later, showing in a video young people removing banners and barricades. With AFP