What began as a localised labour protest at a suburban Paris high school has grown into France's largest student uprising in decades. Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets, high schools have been shut and the country faces a national crisis. The movement has come at a time when France faces economic stagnation, rising public debt and sharp political friction as the country approaches a presidential election next spring.
The spark came on September 21 at Saint-Exupéry high school in a Paris suburb, where students joined teachers on strike over a lack of staff and basic resources. It set off grievances nationwide over an education system that students and staff describe as underfunded, overcrowded and physically decaying.
Several structural factors explain the speed of the escalation. A rise in births in 2010 has brought 2.5 lakh more students into the schools than in 2008, even as teacher numbers have fallen after years of fiscal cuts. About 70 per cent of public classrooms now exceed 30 students, and many report 35 to 40. The staffing gaps are wide as nearly 25 per cent of the vacancies in mathematics, physics and chemistry are unfilled. Cuts over the past 15 to 20 years also removed the pools of substitute teachers, so classes can go weeks without a teacher.
The buildings add to the strain. Many date back 50 to 60 years, and students report collapsing ceilings, water leaks, rat infestations and no climate control, which leaves classrooms freezing in winter and stifling in summer. Protesters also point to deeper inequality, arguing that the admissions platforms and examination formats work against students from poorer families.
The timing is difficult for the government, which is trying to pass a tight budget that would bring the deficit down to 5 per cent of GDP. High interest rates, rising borrowing costs on a national debt of about $4 trillion and fuel prices pushed up by the war in Iran have left little room for concessions.
From the Paris suburbs, the movement spread across the capital and then to Lille, Marseille, Lyon, Rennes, Strasbourg, Tours, Lens and Arcachon. Students blocked school entrances with bins, furniture and makeshift barricades, and between several hundred and 2,000 high schools were closed or disrupted. On the peak day of action, the interior ministry estimated 256,000 marchers nationwide, 56,000 of them in Paris. Student unions put the figure as high as 4.5 lakh. The unrest has not been peaceful throughout. More than 100 schools have suffered structural damage and at least 24 have been burned or ransacked, with losses of over €7 million ($7.84 million) in the Paris region alone.
The coalition has since widened well beyond high school students. University students, teachers, parents and the major labour unions have joined the marches and blockades, with some parents and union representatives saying they stood at school gates partly to keep order and shield young protesters from police violence. Public sector workers have struck against proposed wage freezes, and fishermen have blocked ports and fuel terminals over the cost of diesel. Students from better-funded Parisian schools have marched, too, citing solidarity with peers in neglected suburbs.
The government has leaned heavily on policing, and criticism of heavy-handedness has followed. Riot police have used tear gas, water cannons, batons and sting-ball grenades in Paris, Marseille, Lyon, Rennes and Strasbourg, and a prohibited headlock was documented in Alençon. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu condemned the "extreme violence" at school gates and denied that the government had ordered repression, insisting that police acted in proportion to the rioting. However, no new funding is forthcoming, yet. The government has instead put forward an online feedback portal, an afternoon for school-level discussion and the withdrawal of planned fee increases at technical high schools.
Politics has hardened around the crisis. The upcoming election will choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, whose presidency analysts increasingly describe as a "fin de règne", or end of reign. The political centre is weak in the polls, and the far left and far right have gained from the polarisation. Far left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has backed the students and criticised the use of "tear gas and clubs" against young people. Lecornu has accused Mélenchon of "fanning the flames" to engineer chaos for electoral gain. Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella's National Rally, which holds 118 seats in the National Assembly, stand to gain most from the combination of disorder and economic anxiety. Recent polling puts Le Pen ahead of her rivals in the presidential polls.
US President Donald Trump blamed the unrest on "out of control mass migration" and claimed that "Islam [is] wanting to take over a once great country". Figures in the American MAGA movement have used footage of the French riots to advance anti-immigration arguments before the US midterm elections. Interestingly, Iran summoned the French ambassador Pierre Cochard to accuse France of "violent treatment" of demonstrators and "flagrant human rights violations".
The protests have also exposed France's fiscal weakness. Yields on 10-year French bonds recently rose above 5 per cent, a level not seen in over two decades, as investors questioned whether the government can manage a debt load of about $4 trillion. Annual servicing costs are projected to reach $100 billion by 2027, and one analyst has called the situation a "slow-motion train wreck".
