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France’s violent student protests are fueling fresh warnings about the consequences of open-border immigration policies, with the unrest being held up as a “cautionary tale” for the U.S.
“I would also say as we’re sitting here in beautiful New York City, this is a cautionary tale,” “The Big Weekend Show” co-host Tomi Lahren said Saturday.
She continued: “This is something we’re learning from Europe, and we would be wise to learn from Europe. They decided they wanted to have open borders. They decided they wanted diversity as their strength, and of course, Joe Biden tried that for four years. We’re undoing that currently.”
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Policemen stand in front of burning garbage as they face students during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris on Friday. (Aurelien Morissard/AP Photo)
Lahren posited that “when you let so many people come into your country, leech off of your system, then the people who are from there are going to at some point get upset.”
She said that anger often becomes misplaced and, “they end up lighting things on fire, which I think is stupid no matter what you’re angry with, but it’s no doubt these countries that say we’re going to be a global home for everybody, they end up paying the price, and it’s usually the native Frenchmen, or whenever they are that end up paying the highest price.”
Students in Paris began to protest late last month against what they deemed as overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, long school days and deteriorating conditions, blaming the government for not investing enough in education.
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A student kicks a tear gas canister during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris on Friday. (Aurelien Morissard/AP Photo)
The demonstrations started peacefully in Paris’ poorer suburbs but quickly spread to Paris itself, then went nationwide in cities like Marseille, Strasbourg, Tours, Nantes, Toulouse and Lille, becoming increasingly violent as they expanded.
The protests were also fueled by the government’s 2027 budget unveiling on Thursday, which showed education spending would rise by only 1.7%, excluding teacher pensions, an increase which is below the rate of inflation, Reuters reported.
Rioters have committed arson, vandalism, thrown objects at police and even assaulted people in some cases, prompting authorities to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets.
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Students block the entrance of Voltaire high school in Paris as they protest against under-resourced schools on Friday. (Aurelien Morissard/AP Photo)
More than 5,000 protesters were arrested this week across the country, according to Reuters, and more than 400 schools remained closed as of Friday.
Euronews reported Friday that at least 65 school staff members, including 40 principals, have been injured since the unrest began, along with roughly 170 students.
More than 100 high schools have suffered what Education Minister Édouard Geffray described as “severe damage.”
French intelligence agencies told a government crisis meeting Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed Party, known as LFI, Reuters reported Friday.
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Anti-riot police officers face protesting students carrying out blockading action outside the secondary school Le Corbusier, in Aubervilliers, northern Paris on Friday. (Lou Benoist / AFP via Getty Images)
LFI has denied the allegations and accused President Emmanuel Macron’s government of politicizing the protests ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Digital on Thursday that the unrest began with legitimate concerns but has since evolved into something far more serious.
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“The students’ grievances about missing teachers and deteriorating schools were real at first,” Rodan-Benzaquen said. “But dousing a principal in gasoline and attacking firefighters are acts of extreme violence. What makes this politically significant is the effort to turn frustration over schools into a much broader confrontation with the government.”
‘ Efrat Lachter contributed to this report.
