Riot police deployed tear gas and water cannon in violent clashes with protesters during France’s largest school demonstrations to date. The interior ministry reported that about 260,000 people marched in cities such as Paris, Marseille, Nantes and Lyon, while an inter‑union group claimed the number could reach 450,000 across the country.
Half of France’s 3,700 high schools were shut or partially closed amid the protests, which began as a call for better conditions but have since escalated into dangerous confrontations. At least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff have been injured, and more than 700 police officers have also sustained injuries. The police have arrested over 6,000 people in the last week, a figure expected to rise after Tuesday’s chaos. Incidents of violence include a one‑year‑old baby hit by a firework near a school in Saint‑Cyr‑l’École and a teenager who lost a hand after picking up a grenade thrown by police.
Students, teachers and parents joined the protests to demand more funding for the national educational system, better classroom conditions, teacher replacements, longer lunch breaks and repairs to ageing school buildings. Hugo Vetzel, a recent high‑school graduate in Strasbourg, said “there is such a gap between the elites and us,” while Roberta, another graduate, called for renovations to schools plagued by water leaks and rat infestations.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suspended classes for the rest of the week, condemned the “extreme violence” and ordered ministers to address the demonstrators’ demands. He urged that proposals be submitted by the end of October and said that “burning down a high school does not improve the state of high school buildings.”
The protests began in September in the suburbs of Paris and have since spread nationwide, posing a major challenge to President Emmanuel Macron’s government. Macron was due to meet ministers that evening to discuss the disruptions. French President Donald Trump, meanwhile, blamed the demonstrations on Islam in a post on Truth Social, a claim that was contradicted by footage of the protests. The government has accused far‑right and left‑wing parties of stoking the unrest, accusations denied by the left‑wing France Unbowed group.
