The police intervened on Friday at Sciences Po Paris to evacuate the pro-Gaza activists who had occupied it since the day before: the establishment and its campuses remain the epicenter in France of student mobilization in favor of the Palestinians, which ignites the political debate.
According to a Sciences Po student who spoke to the press, “around fifty students were still present in the premises on rue Saint-Guillaume” when the police entered the school. , a week after a mobilization marred by tensions at Sciences Po Paris and a previous evacuation of premises.
“The firmness is and will remain total,” said Matignon. Gabriel Attal “requested intervention upon requisition from the provisional administrator” of Sciences Po Paris, the same Source said. The provisional administrator of the school, “Jean Bassères, called the police. He gave a 20-minute ultimatum to leave, due to “exams being held from Monday,” Hicham, representative of the Palestine Committee, told the press after leaving the occupied premises. “Upon requisition, the police prefect engaged the public force to evacuate the Sciences Po site on rue Saint-Guillaume. 91 people were evacuated without incident. The operation is taking place peacefully,” said the police headquarters.
In this upscale district of Paris, the street leading to Sciences Po remains blocked by the police. At its end, a few dozen students sing “we are here, even if Sciences Po does not want it, we are here” or “long live the struggle of the Palestinian people”. Student mobilization in favor of Gaza and the Palestinians remains limited to Sciences Po, its regional campuses and political studies institutes but is struggling to spread in universities. However, a rally in support of the Palestinian cause is planned for Friday at 2 p.m. in Paris at the call of student unions.
Place de la Sorbonne, a few hundred meters from Sciences Po Paris, the Union of Jewish Students of France (UEJF) holds a “dialogue table” for a good part of the day, with several guests, including the designer Joann Sfar (“The Rabbi’s Cat”). Only around ten people participated at midday
Elsewhere in France, several Sciences Po Paris campuses such as Le Havre, Dijon, Reims and Poitiers were subject to disruptions, blockages or partial occupations. In Reims, “five to seven students” began a hunger strike, one of these students, who did not want to give her name, told AFP. In Lyon, the police intervened on Friday to calmly evacuate pro-Palestinian demonstrators from the Institute of Political Studies (which is not attached to Sciences Po Paris). Once outside, a few dozen demonstrators chanted “Gaza, Gaza, Lyon is with you.”
In Saint-Etienne, the police also intervened to evacuate around fifteen students who were blocking access to a university site. In Lille, the entrance to the ESJ (the Lille journalism school) was still blocked, according to an AFP journalist.
Thursday evening, the management of Sciences Po Paris – which welcomes 5,000 to 6,000 students in the capital – announced the closure of its main premises and invited students and employees to telework.
