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On Tuesday, Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to smear the student mobilizations spreading across France as caused by “out of control mass migration” and “Islam wanting to take over.”

Other right-wing politicians and commentators echoed these spurious claims.

“This will come to America if the Democrats take power again,” claimed right-wing commentator Dave Rubin on X.

Their comments came as France’s weeks-long student movement transformed into a nationwide revolt on Tuesday, with organizers and trade unions estimating some 450,000 people protesting in 40 cities across the country.

The movement began on September 21, with high school students organizing demonstrations against poor school conditions, a neglected public education system, and dilapidated buildings. The protests began in the suburbs of Paris and quickly spread, with students blockading their schools to force them to shut.

Macron Refuses to Appoint Left-Wing Prime Minister, Sparking Call for Protest

Since the movement’s start, French police have arrested some 6,000 students — a majority of them minors. Over 200 students have been injured, as police have fired teargas and used batons against the youth protestors.

On Tuesday, France’s General Confederation of Labor (CGT) — one of the country’s largest and most powerful trade unions, representing teachers and civil servants, among other workers — joined the nationwide protests.

One of the participants in Tuesday’s demonstration, a teacher named Manel ben Boubaker, told Truthout that the mobilization was “a massive success.”

“What struck me most is that it really shows the emergence of a new generation of young people in France who are refusing the world as it has been built for them — the way the education system is organized, neoliberal policies,........

© Truthout