Today's Word Is Blockade

Today's word is blockade. On Thursday 1,027 of France's roughly 3,700 high schools were caught up in student protests over crumbling buildings, ten-hour days and too few teachers, and 222 were blockaded. The government can't agree what it is: legitimate at first, says the education minister; urban violence, says the interior ministry; a party's manoeuvre, says the prime minister's office.

A week into France's school revolt the government cannot agree on what it is: the education minister called it legitimate at the outset, the interior ministry now calls it urban violence, and the prime minister's office says intelligence sees an organised manoeuvre by a left party some of whose members backed the protests; on Thursday 1,027 of the country's roughly 3,700 high schools were affected, 222 of them blockaded, and the minister met unions, students and parents on Friday.

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