France's Lecornu addresses the nation as student protest wave forces government response

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu gave a 15 minute national address acknowledging the anger of student protesters and promising five initiatives, after Tuesday's school funding protests drew 266,000 people according to the Interior Ministry, a figure unions dispute with a claim of 450,000. Lecornu set a November 12 parliamentary debate on a budget carrying 64 billion euros for education.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez ordered security forces to stop using stun grenades on student protests after a 15 year old in Lens lost his left hand to one. Nunez told RTL that police must act with "the greatest proportionality." High schools were given a week of "internal democracy" discussion time. President Emmanuel Macron convened a crisis meeting with Lecornu, Nunez and Education Minister Geffray.

This is the third major development in a weeklong story, and what is new is the government's attempt to buy calm with concessions. The stun grenade ban answers the most graphic grievance of the protests. The 64 billion euro figure is the first concrete number attached to the funding demands. The November 12 debate date gives the movement a deadline to watch.

The shape of it is a government trying to defuse a movement before the October 17 union day of action, when the student protests could merge with a broader labor mobilization. Whether the address and the ban are enough will be decided on the streets, not in the speech.

The government is now fighting on two fronts it chose itself: the funding question, which is about money, and the policing question, which is about the state's own hands. The stun grenade ban answers the second front directly, because a teenager losing a hand is the kind of fact that makes a movement grow. The 64 billion euro budget figure answers the first. Together they are a bet that concessions split the movement before October 17. The bet only works if the streets accept the terms.