France is struggling to contain the largest student movement in decades. What began as a demonstration in support of a teacher strike at a high school in the northern suburbs of Paris has snowballed into a national crisis.
Hundreds of schools have been forced to close in the past few weeks and more than 6,000 people have been detained by police, most of them minors with no criminal record. Students, teachers and police officers were injured. In the northeastern city of Reims, a student lost his hand after picking up a grenade, while in Tours another student used his eye.
Authorities estimate hundreds of thousands of protesters, including students, teachers and trade union representatives, took to the streets on Tuesday as protests spread across the country.
In Paris, trash cans and school desks and chairs were set on fire as tear gas filled the air and riot police wielding shields and batons clashed with some demonstrators.
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The first protest, which took place on September 21 at Saint-Exupéry High School on the outskirts of Paris, attracted little attention. Students joined teachers in protesting the lack of staff and resources. The strike ended when their demands were met and additional personnel were sent to the school, but by then the match had been lit. Student leader Maness Nader said it spread like wildfire.
“Currently, an unprecedented number of schools are involved,” he said, adding that the French Education Ministry was “completely overwhelmed by the crisis.”
Although the protests started in the suburbs, they have now attracted international attention. US President Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday that “what is happening in France is nothing but mass immigration out of control.”
“This is not about schools. This is about Islam trying to take over our once great country,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Lycée students in Paris and surrounding areas began blocking entrances, and within days similar scenes were reported across the country, from Lille in the north to Marseille in the south. Videos of students setting trash cans on fire, manning barricades, assaults on faculty and staff, and clashes with police have led to questions about the police response and the involvement of far-left groups. More than 100 high schools have been damaged since the protests began.
Critics have accused the police of being heavy-handed. In Alencon, a police officer was caught on camera putting the girl in a headlock, a technique that is currently prohibited by law.
The violence of the protests and the speed with which they spread have surprised many, but grievances have been ongoing for years. Many students feel that the overcrowded, ill-equipped and understaffed education system is no longer fit for purpose. Videos have been circulating for years showing classrooms with too few desks and chairs and students having to cancel classes unless an absent teacher is replaced.
In 2010, France’s birth rate soared, leading to an increase in the number of high school students attending schools whose real budgets had been cut for years. There are now fewer teachers in secondary schools than there were in 2008, even though there are 250,000 more students. In the public sector, 70% of classrooms have more than 30 students per class.
Critics say the government’s response has been slow and tone-deaf. Initially, much of it focused on the far-left party LFI and its presence at the barricades. The party, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who is expected to do well in next spring’s presidential election, has repeatedly defended both the students’ right to protest and the party’s right to protest. The need for a decisive police response and the cost of protests have also received significant attention. Damage to schools in the Paris metropolitan area alone is estimated at 7 million euros ($7.84 million).
There were initially concessions on technical high school tuition fees scheduled for 2027, but they have now been removed from the government budget. “The government’s response has been irresponsible and confirms exactly why students are angry: their voices are not being heard,” Maness said. “They are only responding with repression.”
Protesters now have the full attention of the government after a spike in violence late last week, when the interior minister pointed to a shift from student protests to urban violence, noting in particular that around 2,000 people were detained in one day. On Friday, Education Minister Edouard Jeffrey met with student leaders. But no agreement was reached, and student leaders called for mass participation the following Tuesday.
France’s interior ministry estimated there were about 256,000 demonstrators on the streets across the country on Tuesday, including 56,000 in Paris. Meanwhile, Union Syndical Lycéennes, one of the high school student unions involved in organizing the demonstrations, suggested a much larger number of participants nationwide, at 450,000.
More than 400 people were detained during Tuesday’s protests, the ministry said.
Some students called for new demonstrations on Thursday.
“Extreme violence has reached the gates of our high schools and this must be unequivocally condemned,” French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in a speech in parliament on Tuesday.
Lecorne said 215 students and 85 school staff were injured in the riot, “the highest number of school staff injured in decades.” He denied accusations that the government had ordered police to suppress the protests.
He also said authorities need to listen to the concerns and demands of students at each school.
“Therefore, starting this Wednesday, we will set aside time for each leadership team to organize internal democracy sessions within their high schools,” he wrote to X.
The Ministry of Education has launched an online portal where students can share their concerns and ideas to improve education.
The government’s response is hampered by worsening public finances. The government aims to pass a 2027 budget that will reduce the budget deficit to around 5% of GDP, a feat that can only be achieved through painstaking and urgent action. Yields on French 10-year bonds briefly rose above 5% last week, the highest level since 2002, as protests heightened concerns about the country’s fiscal outlook.
The unrest has signaled the start of what is expected to be a fierce presidential race between the far right and the far left, with many centrists struggling in opinion polls. For the far left, students are the obvious voters. For governments, they can be a source of confusion and, at worst, spending pressures.
Historically, student movements have not gone well with the French government. The May 1968 student movement became the largest strike in French history, in a country that knows a thing or two about strikes. One of its slogans was “Be realistic, seek the impossible.”
What’s different now is that the students who once again stood at the barricades don’t feel like they’re being asked for much. In fact, they say they are demanding the bare minimum: an education system that allows them to learn.
