Protests by French high-school students have run for weeks and become a national issue. According to a Central News Agency report carried by the Liberty Times, rallies took place on 6 October in dozens of cities, from Caen in the north to Marseille in the south. The Interior Ministry put turnout at about 250,000, while unions say the real figure was much higher.

What drove students out

Students cite dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classes, heavy timetables, thin school budgets and a shortage of teachers and staff. Fifteen-year-old Issam Makhloufi of Rosa Parks High School in Saint-Denis said classrooms have no ventilation and the windows cannot even be opened. Some students also want the national university application platform scrapped, calling it unfair.

Teachers’ union leader Sophie Venetitay blamed a decade of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency for the state of public education. Officials said about 900 schools closed on the 6th, while students claimed 1,800, close to half of France’s 3,700 high schools. The Education Ministry said 528 schools were fully or partly closed on the 7th.

Violence and the government’s response

The protests began peacefully but soon clashed with riot police, and some demonstrators fired mortar-style fireworks at officers. Authorities said at least 24 schools were looted or set on fire. Over two weeks, more than 6,500 people have been arrested, and more than 750 police officers and about 300 students and teachers have been injured.

The government condemned the violence while offering concessions. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin told prosecutors to pursue criminal charges and argued that parents should be held liable for damage. Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced the withdrawal of a planned rise in higher-education registration fees in the 2027 budget and, after meeting student representatives, promised reforms to campus democracy and a plan on teacher shortages. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on the 7th that the government would open a dialogue with high-school students.

The unrest also overlaps with the political and fiscal backdrop. The government must win parliamentary backing for budget adjustments worth tens of billions of euros, yet it has governed as a minority since the July 2024 election, making passage difficult. Political instability and fears of spending cuts have unsettled investors, pushing French bond yields to multi-decade highs this year, and some observers have raised the spectre of a sovereign-debt crisis. Grievances that began in the classroom are now entangled with fiscal and political questions.