FranceâÂÂs âÂÂbasketball star Victor Wembanyama voiced his support on Thursday â for French â teenagers protesting conditions in the countryâÂÂs schools.
The Ministry of the Interior said 71,500 people took part in ThursdayâÂÂs demonstrations, â including 24,500 in the main Paris march centred on Place de la Bastille.
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âÂÂThese are systemic inequalities â problems so deep-rooted â that, in fact, IâÂÂm glad that high-school students and young people in general are speaking up,â Wembanyama told a news conference on Thursday night.
âÂÂI hear them, and I support them, and âÂÂI hope the people all over there will do the same.âÂÂ
The San Antonio Spurs player had previously replied âÂÂI would love toâ when a fan asked him in an Instagram post to join the protest with the French teenagers.
âÂÂI have a lot of interest. I meant it,â Wembanyama â added at the news conference. âÂÂI was in â that position not so long ago.
âÂÂIâÂÂve had the chance to escape this system, to escape these problems. But itâÂÂs chance, itâÂÂs luck. So I â want to show my support.
âÂÂItâÂÂs not something thatâÂÂs completely unfamiliar to me. I went â to high school in Nanterre, which was â already a stronghold of âÂÂblocagesâ back then,â he said, referring to student-led school blockades.
Concerns about state schools have helped prompt a number of FranceâÂÂs most significant protests âÂÂin decades.
They began last month at high schools in the poor northern suburbs of Paris, where anger over teacher absences âÂÂand âÂÂshabby facilities quickly evolved into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak public spending and falling standards.