Riot police stormed the Sorbonne University early yesterday, pushing out some 200 students occupying the historic institution, some for three days, to protest a government jobs plan.
At least 80 police officers rushed the landmark institution to dislodge students, some holed up in a classroom barricaded behind desks, chairs and debris. Police acted on a demand from the rector of the Paris Academy which runs the university, moving in at 3:45am, police said.
Two people were injured, a student who fell and a photographer hit by a projectile, a statement by Paris police headquarters said.
PHOTO: AFP
LCI television reported that scores of students who fled the Sorbonne broke windows of a fast-food restaurant. Twenty-seven were arrested, it reported.
The disturbances were part of snowballing protests over a new jobs measure that are posing a major test to the government. Up to 600 students were reportedly in the Sorbonne on Friday, joining a sit-in that began on Wednesday. The university was forced to close.
The occupation at the Sorbonne was part of a larger movement by students, along with unions, trying to force the government to withdraw the jobs measure that will make it easier for companies to fire workers younger than 26.
The government hopes the flexibility will spur employers to hire young people, safe in the knowledge that they will be able to get rid of them if necessary.
Critics, however, say it would offer younger workers less job security than older colleagues and undermine France's generous labor protections.
Police moved calmly in a block through the halls of the Sorbonne entering from a back door. They punched through the boarded up classroom and blocked projectiles with their shields.
The majority of students gathered in an inner courtyard, lining up on the steps of a chapel at one end. They were surrounded and moved out of the main entrance of the university without force but with sprays of tear gas.
When police arrived, protesters decided to stick together "as a symbol," said a third-year student in the building since Wednesday who identified herself only as Elodie.
"Everyone tried to be hyper-responsible of the place because we know it is our national patrimony," she said.
She said the situation degenerated when hundreds of others joined the core group of some 80 occupiers on Friday. The demonstration intensified late on Friday with protesters hurling ladders, chairs, a fire hydrant and other objects from a window toward police outside. Police responded with tear gas.
An administrator said the protesters wanted to turn the school into "a battlefield," not only against the jobs measure "but against all of the social problems" France faces.
Taiwan is projected to lose a working-age population of about 6.67 million people in two waves of retirement in the coming years, as the nation confronts accelerating demographic decline and a shortage of younger workers to take their place, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan experienced its largest baby boom between 1958 and 1966, when the population grew by 3.78 million, followed by a second surge of 2.89 million between 1976 and 1982, ministry data showed. In 2023, the first of those baby boom generations — those born in the late 1950s and early 1960s — began to enter retirement, triggering
ECONOMIC BOOST: Should the more than 23 million people eligible for the NT$10,000 handouts spend them the same way as in 2023, GDP could rise 0.5 percent, an official said Universal cash handouts of NT$10,000 (US$330) are to be disbursed late next month at the earliest — including to permanent residents and foreign residents married to Taiwanese — pending legislative approval, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. The Executive Yuan yesterday approved the Special Act for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience in Response to International Circumstances (因應國際情勢強化經濟社會及民生國安韌性特別條例). The NT$550 billion special budget includes NT$236 billion for the cash handouts, plus an additional NT$20 billion set aside as reserve funds, expected to be used to support industries. Handouts might begin one month after the bill is promulgated and would be completed within
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
IMPORTANT BACKER: China seeks to expel US influence from the Indo-Pacific region and supplant Washington as the global leader, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng said China is preparing for war to seize Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said in Washington on Friday, warning that Taiwan’s fall would trigger a regional “domino effect” endangering US security. In a speech titled “Maintaining the Peaceful and Stable Status Quo Across the Taiwan Strait is in Line with the Shared Interests of Taiwan and the United States,” Chiu said Taiwan’s strategic importance is “closely tied” to US interests. Geopolitically, Taiwan sits in a “core position” in the first island chain — an arc stretching from Japan, through Taiwan and the Philippines, to Borneo, which is shared by
RSS