PARIS, Oct 9 (Reuters) - France's basketball star Victor Wembanyama voiced his support on Thursday for French teenagers protesting conditions in the country's schools.
The Interior Ministry said 71,500 people took part in Thursday's demonstrations, including 24,500 in the main Paris march centred on Place de la Bastille.
"These are systemic inequalities – problems so deep-rooted that, in fact, I'm glad that high-school students and young people in general are speaking up," Wembanyama told a press conference on Thursday night.
"I hear them, and I support them, and I hope the people all over there will do the same."
The San Antonio Spurs player had previously replied "I would love to" when a fan asked him in an Instagram post to join the protest with the French teenagers.
"I have a lot of interest. I meant it," Wembanyama added at the press conference. "I was in that position not so long ago."
"I've had the chance to escape this system, to escape these problems. But it's chance, it's luck. So I want to show my support."
"It's not something that's completely unfamiliar to me. I went to high school in Nanterre, which was already a stronghold of 'blocages' back then," he said, referring to student-led school blockades.
Concerns about state schools have helped fuel some of France's most significant protests in decades. They began last month at high schools in Paris' poor northern suburbs, where anger over teacher absences and shabby facilities quickly evolved into a nationwide movement against inequality, weak public spending and falling standards.
(Reporting by Vincent Daheron; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
