PARIS — Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced before the National Assembly on Tuesday that all French high schools will suspend ordinary instruction indefinitely and convert every classroom, gymnasium and cafeteria into a round-the-clock «internal democracy» assembly, with students required to remain on campus until they produce one unanimous list of demands acceptable to the government.
«We have decided to free up time,» Lecornu told deputies. «Starting tomorrow morning, every school will run a single continuous session of internal democracy. Students will not go home until they have agreed among themselves on what they actually want. We will provide chairs, water and a moderator from the prefecture.»
The Education Ministry confirmed that principals have been instructed to remove all desks from classrooms to make room for circular seating, and that school bells have been reprogrammed to ring only when a vote is passed. In Lyon, the first school converted its gymnasium into a permanent assembly hall by stacking 400 chairs in a spiral; in Marseille, students arrived to find their courtyard covered with a single enormous chalk circle and a sign reading «Speak until it is finished.»
By evening, the prefecture had dispatched a moderator to every lycée in the country, each carrying a folding table, a megaphone and a printed schedule of sessions running from 7 a.m. to midnight. The government said the measure will remain in force until the students' demands are «clear, unanimous and written on a single sheet,» and that no homework will be assigned in the meantime.