President Trump on Tuesday warned that the riots by young students in France are the result of rampant, massive migration in which Islamists are aiming to take over the country.
Police lobbed tear gas into crowds of raucous young demonstrators in Paris and other places in France Tuesday, when more than 250,000 protesters demanded more education funding.
Students blockaded high schools as large crowds waved flags and signs and gathered in Marseille, Strasbourg and other cities.
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Mr. Trump criticized the upheaval in the streets of Paris.
“What’s happening in France is nothing less than out of control mass migration,” he said on social media. “This isn’t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country!”
The demonstrations began at a high school in the Paris region in mid-September and have grown into a nationwide movement. The students have drawn attention to rundown classrooms that lack basics such as desks and chairs, become sweltering in summer without air conditioning and, in some cases, are infested with rats. Other common complaints include staff shortages and exhausting workloads.
The protests increased pressure on the administration of outgoing President Emmanuel Macron.
The Interior Ministry estimated that 266,000 people took part in demonstrations across the country on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris, where small groups of protesters clashed with riot officers at a city square at the end of a largely peaceful march.
Nearly 500 people were detained Tuesday, the ministry said. The widespread use of arrests, tear gas and riot-control weapons against teenagers is fueling defiance and angering some parents and teachers. Some student groups called for new protests Thursday.
According to a recent report from the French outlet Le Figaro, the percentage of immigrants in France is expected to keep rising as their national birthrates keep falling.
Currently, the foreign population residing in France is about 6.3 million people, or 9.1% of the total population, Le Figaro reported.
It is composed of 5.3 million immigrants who have not acquired French nationality and one million people born in France who hold foreign nationality.
Of that number, “In 2025, nearly half of immigrants living in France were born in Africa (49.2%), and nearly one-third in Europe (30.3%),” the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies notes.
This represents over 3.5 million African immigrants. Comparatively, in 1968, three out of four foreigners in France were European.
— This article is based in part on wire service reports.
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