Protests in France reached the Louvre Museum in Paris on Monday after demonstrators blocked its entrances in support of a nationwide high school student movement and to denounce what they described as “police repression”.
The museum was unable to open as scheduled because of a protest led by students from the Ecole du Louvre, according to museum management, which confirmed the disruption to the AFP news agency. A leaflet displayed outside the building declared: “We are proud to announce that we are blocking the world’s largest museum.”
The demonstration came as protests across France continued to escalate, with participants raising concerns that extend beyond conditions in the country’s high schools. What began last month as student demonstrations over conditions in lycees has grown into a broader movement addressing issues including the rising cost of living and inflation.
The unrest has also brought significant consequences for public order and businesses. French Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday that more than 2,330 people had been taken into police custody over the weekend, around 70 per cent of them adults.
Alain Di Crescenzo, president of the chamber of commerce, estimated that more than 2,000 shops across France had been affected by the weekend’s violence. He put the resulting damage at hundreds of millions of euros, highlighting the financial impact of the unrest on businesses.
The closure of the Louvre, one of Paris’s most prominent cultural institutions, brought the demonstrations into a major public space beyond the schools where the movement first emerged. The action also linked student protests with wider criticism of the authorities’ response to the unrest, as demonstrators used access to a high-profile museum to draw attention to their demands.
