The police evicted again yesterday, without incident, 91 pro-Palestinian students occupying the premises of the Sciences Po Institute in Paris. The French Government, through the mouth of the Prime Minister himself, Gabriel Attal, insisted that it would maintain “total firmness” in the face of blockades in universities due to protests over the Gaza conflict. Attal spoke of a “shameful spiral” that must be stopped whether it is yes or no.
Sciences Po is one of the most prestigious places in the world for the study of political science and international relations. Teaching activity has been disrupted for weeks. Yesterday the management canceled all classes to avoid an escalation of tension.
The Palestine Committee, very active in the protests, rejected a compromise offered by the institute’s leaders. Two of the committee’s representatives denounced the police presence in the area, which they considered a “disproportionate security response”.
The French Government does not want the situation, due to contagion with the campuses in the United States, to get out of hand and that is why it is acting quickly and decisively to evacuate occupied university premises, also the Sciences Po delegations in the regions and other centers of education such as the School of Journalism in Lilla, in the north of the country.
France is one of the European countries most sensitive to what is happening in Gaza. Not surprisingly, it houses the continent’s largest Jewish and Muslim communities, so the potential for conflict is high. In addition, there is a well-established culture of rioting in the street. Anti-Semitism is a serious problem, which has worsened in recent years. The current situation increases the risk. Attal, of Jewish descent on the paternal side, is always very combative against this phenomenon.
Despite the eviction of Sciences Po, the protest found other ways of expression. A spontaneous demonstration was organized in the Pantheon square which brought together two hundred people with banners against “the repression and closure of the faculties” and which denounced “imperialism” and “the genocide in Gaza”.
The area of ??Paris where Sciences Po is located is the Latin Quarter, on the left bank of the Seine, where barricades were set up during the May 1968 revolt and pitched battles with the police took place for days. At the moment, nothing indicates this time that the tension could be exacerbated and spread to that point, but the Government is very careful to prevent it from becoming a public order crisis of greater magnitude.
