Macron promises 'concrete measures' in response to French students' demands

In France, President Emmanuel Macron is promising a concrete response to high school students' demands for an increase in funding to education. This in the wake of nationwide protests, which degenerated into some of the country's worst rioting in years. The nation rocked by growing anger over the rising cost of living and the state of its high schools. Now, this afternoon, Prime Minister Sébastien Le Corneau is to meet a group of student representatives. Luke Schrago is at the Matignon, the Prime Minister's office in central Paris. Luke, what exactly is expected to happen at this meeting? Well, Annette, Monday's meeting is coming off the back of a meeting with, not just a meeting with Emmanuel Macron on Friday, but of major protests over the weekend across France. 410,000 according to official figures and 800,000 according to unions. Now that means that student representatives are going into this meeting with a great deal of momentum and support and their demands at this point are the same as they have said the whole way through they want concrete announcements on the Parcoursup university admission system they want an increase in the number of university places they want a shortage of teachers and overcrowding in classrooms addressed and they want a renewal of infrastructure not to mention commitments over the budget 10 billion that they've been calling for that they require to to handle their grievances now there are still gaps uh moving forward Emmanuel Macron opened the door on Friday to what he called an overhaul of Parcoursup so not the repeal that students have been calling for uh there's also differences in the scale of the budget that's been allocated the government allocates 1.1 billion euros for education in its current budget now they said that they felt heard on Friday but it's now time for action they said that if talk is going to remain just that it will still just be empty talk what they want is a timetable for the implementation of an addressing of their grievances and they've been warning that if they don't get what they're seeking they are calling for further mobilizations if the meeting doesn't go according to their expectations. Luke just how difficult is this going to be for the government keeping in mind that we're six months out from a presidential election? At this point the government really feels like it's in siege mode of sorts last week we saw the authorities insisting on the line of keeping order in the streets following the protests the weekend before this last one of violence and rioting across across France now they were roundly criticized throughout the course of the week for failing to address the issues underpinning this public anger the students themselves are still calling for massive investment they want a 1.5 billion investment in an emergency plan just to address the reparation of dilapidated infrastructure in the education system and their full total would be for 10 million of worth of investment across the education sector but the government for its part its hands are in fact still tied it needs to get its public spending under control the current budget is calling for 54 billion euros in spending cuts and that means that they're going to try and have to find the cash somewhere Now, Sébastien Le Cornu has been saying that the government will act within existing commitments to its budget, but that's not enough for the students. They want statements going forward and coming out of the meeting. We can expect a press conference from both education ministers, from Édouard Geffray and the Minister of Higher Education, Philippe Batiste, at the end of the day. They should mention in certain ways how they intend to move forward, but we will all be be watching carefully to see exactly what comes out of the meeting because as I've mentioned further action set for weekend protests next weekend on October 31st with unions calling for a full strike on November 5th. Luke Schrager reporting there from the Matignon, the French Prime Minister's office in central Paris. Thank you.