Les revendications des lycéens sont justes et légitimes !
Antoine Léaument
42,905 views
In this debate broadcast on LCI on October 1, 2026, Antoine Léaument, a member of parliament for La France Insoumise representing Essonne, joined several political commentators and a legal expert to analyze the wave of student protests and the violence that marred some of the demonstrations. He defended a social interpretation of the events against a security-focused one, and called for a political rather than a repressive response.
Antoine Léaument began his remarks by talking about rats. At the high school he visited, students told him about rats in the cafeteria, smells from unrepaired pipes, missing tables and chairs, absent teachers replaced by supervisors, and a classroom that reached 37 degrees Celsius during a heatwave. It is this context of dilapidated public services that explains the students' anger—and not any justification for violence. He condemns all violence, whether it comes from protesters or the police, but insists: if we don't start by talking about the rats, we'll only ever talk about the fires. He refers to the footage showing him near a fire that had just started: he had extinguished a bush fire himself with his foot and had just said into the microphone that setting it on fire would be pointless—what happened a few seconds later, in his opinion, perfectly illustrates this point.
Faced with an opponent who tries to pit the high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis against rural high schools in terms of resources, Antoine Léaument rejects this comparison. He points out that his own Italian great-grandparents were welcomed to France under signs prohibiting dogs and Italians, and that addressing the education crisis by focusing on integration is a way of shifting the debate. He also rejects the conflation of mobilized high school students with individuals from outside the schools who commit violence: in the high school he visited, he himself retrieved a mortar fired by someone from outside the demonstration.
Regarding law enforcement, Antoine Léaument expresses his support for the young policewoman who was injured and the young man who lost an eye to police gunfire. He advocates for de-escalation strategies: protective shields, non-lethal dispersal devices, and negotiators. He does not call for a ban on the LBD (less-lethal defense weapon) but rejects the notion that the lack of alternatives necessitates the use of lethal force. His position is that law enforcement during demonstrations should be governed by the principle of strictly necessary force.
Antoine Léaument concluded by rejecting the knee-jerk legislative response—yet another law on sanctions—preferring to remind everyone that the civil code has held parents responsible for the actions of their minor children since 1804. He called for a peaceful national mobilization on Tuesday, October 6, with shared demands regarding education resources and purchasing power, and reaffirmed that social issues cannot be addressed with force.
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Chapters:
00:00 Rats, pipes, missing desks: the reality of high schools
00:59 Condemnation of all violence and a look back at the images of the fire
04:11 The question of resources: refusing to pit Seine-Saint-Denis against rural areas
07:00 Italian great-grandparents and the rejection of the question of integration
11:00 Collective analysis: multiplicity of demands and limits of the repressive response
14:32 Nelson Mandela High School: the question of resources revisited
38:21 De-escalation, LBDs (less-lethal defense launchers), and maintaining order in demonstrations
42:27 Call for peaceful mobilization on October 6
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20 Comments
Car ils font tous l'erreur de penser que les violences, sont forcément dues aux revendications. Ils ne comprennent pas l'empilement des problèmes que cela cause. Ce sont des phénomènes de mouvement de foule qui ne sont pas contrôlable par les étudiants eux-mêmes. C'est bien pour cette raison qu'il faut surtout BIEN encadrer les protestations, et non les réprimer, et donc les faire exploser.
Les revendications des lycéens sont justes et légitimes !
Antoine Léaument
42,905 views
In this debate broadcast on LCI on October 1, 2026, Antoine Léaument, a member of parliament for La France Insoumise representing Essonne, joined several political commentators and a legal expert to analyze the wave of student protests and the violence that marred some of the demonstrations. He defended a social interpretation of the events against a security-focused one, and called for a political rather than a repressive response.
Antoine Léaument began his remarks by talking about rats. At the high school he visited, students told him about rats in the cafeteria, smells from unrepaired pipes, missing tables and chairs, absent teachers replaced by supervisors, and a classroom that reached 37 degrees Celsius during a heatwave. It is this context of dilapidated public services that explains the students' anger—and not any justification for violence. He condemns all violence, whether it comes from protesters or the police, but insists: if we don't start by talking about the rats, we'll only ever talk about the fires. He refers to the footage showing him near a fire that had just started: he had extinguished a bush fire himself with his foot and had just said into the microphone that setting it on fire would be pointless—what happened a few seconds later, in his opinion, perfectly illustrates this point.
Faced with an opponent who tries to pit the high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis against rural high schools in terms of resources, Antoine Léaument rejects this comparison. He points out that his own Italian great-grandparents were welcomed to France under signs prohibiting dogs and Italians, and that addressing the education crisis by focusing on integration is a way of shifting the debate. He also rejects the conflation of mobilized high school students with individuals from outside the schools who commit violence: in the high school he visited, he himself retrieved a mortar fired by someone from outside the demonstration.
Regarding law enforcement, Antoine Léaument expresses his support for the young policewoman who was injured and the young man who lost an eye to police gunfire. He advocates for de-escalation strategies: protective shields, non-lethal dispersal devices, and negotiators. He does not call for a ban on the LBD (less-lethal defense weapon) but rejects the notion that the lack of alternatives necessitates the use of lethal force. His position is that law enforcement during demonstrations should be governed by the principle of strictly necessary force.
Antoine Léaument concluded by rejecting the knee-jerk legislative response—yet another law on sanctions—preferring to remind everyone that the civil code has held parents responsible for the actions of their minor children since 1804. He called for a peaceful national mobilization on Tuesday, October 6, with shared demands regarding education resources and purchasing power, and reaffirmed that social issues cannot be addressed with force.
---
Chapters:
00:00 Rats, pipes, missing desks: the reality of high schools
00:59 Condemnation of all violence and a look back at the images of the fire
04:11 The question of resources: refusing to pit Seine-Saint-Denis against rural areas
07:00 Italian great-grandparents and the rejection of the question of integration
11:00 Collective analysis: multiplicity of demands and limits of the repressive response
14:32 Nelson Mandela High School: the question of resources revisited
38:21 De-escalation, LBDs (less-lethal defense launchers), and maintaining order in demonstrations
42:27 Call for peaceful mobilization on October 6
**FOLLOW ME ON**
Twitch: Twitch: ALeaument
TikTok: TikTok: aleaument
Facebook: Facebook: ALeaument
Twitter Twitter: Twitter: ALeaument
Discord: Discord: discord
Instagram: Instagram: aleaument
Snapchat: @ALeaument
YouTube (to subscribe): http://bit.ly/2gbk7cm
WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCU...
LinkedIn: LinkedIn: aleaument