Secondary school students across France are anticipated to rejoin street demonstrations next week, following a two-day pause, continuing a wave of unrest that has placed pressure on President Emmanuel Macron's administration. Two questions hang over the coming days: whether scattered incidents of violence at the edges of the demonstrations will grow in frequency, drawing the boundary between lawful protest and public disorder into doubt, and whether the government will opt to intensify an already substantial police deployment.
The interior minister's office reported that detentions during the previous week surpassed 5,000, with roughly four out of every five people taken into custody being under the age of majority, amid confrontations between students and security personnel that left hundreds with injuries.
On Tuesday, the CGT labour union — one of the country's most prominent worker organisations — has called on its members to join the street protests, a development that will offer a clearer picture of how broadly the movement can sustain momentum and draw new participants.
Demonstrations in the greater Paris area got under way around mid-September. At a lycée on the south-eastern edge of Paris — in the Créteil area — both teaching staff and pupils took collective action over what they described as inadequate staffing levels. Protests that had taken root in the suburbs outside Paris — through school walkouts, road blockades, and public gatherings — extended their reach into secondary schools across towns throughout the rest of the country.
The education minister has indicated that somewhere between 400 and 500 schools will remain closed into the opening days of this week, following shutdowns prompted by physical damage to buildings and threats made against staff members. Injuries were recorded among upwards of 170 students and 78 members of staff.
Protesters in Créteil carried placards bearing messages about unequal access to quality schooling — a gap they argued runs counter to the republic's founding ideals — while a literature teacher at a Paris school told those gathered that classroom conditions had deteriorated over the years. Pupils from other areas described going without cooling during summer heat and adequate warmth through winter months. The demonstration's early signs were documented in photographs shared by Clémence Guetté, the constituency's representative at the National Assembly.
Broadcast footage distributed through French television networks showed conditions inside several school buildings that included rodent activity in corridors, collapsed ceiling sections, moisture penetrating interior walls, and furniture in a state of disrepair.
Education allocations rank among the heftiest line items in the draft budget the government has put forward for 2027. Of the two spending lines, education drew the larger share — €65.5 billion against the €63.4 billion set aside for defence.
Students have raised concerns about the length of their school day. At most secondary schools, the day gets under way around 8 in the morning and lessons can stretch through to early evening. According to EU figures, French secondary-school pupils rank among those logging the longest hours in classrooms across the continent — a reality one student put into words on a handwritten placard, photographed by local media, noting that her time with teachers outpaced the hours she spent at home with her family.
Guetté, a lawmaker affiliated with France Unbowed, drew attention after sharing photographs of herself at early protests in Créteil, where she appeared among the first demonstrators with a bullhorn, and has since been noted as a figure gaining ground within the party. Members of France Unbowed took steps to connect with the student demonstrations, arranging face-to-face meetings with participants and putting their backing behind the protesters' demands.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who leads France Unbowed, called on the party's members and supporters to physically position themselves as a buffer between students and law enforcement. Mélenchon took aim at what he described as the conduct of officers who deployed tear gas and batons against crowds, labelling their actions as "savagery." Facial injuries reported among demonstrators are thought to have been caused by crowd-dispersal munitions fired by law enforcement. Figures released by the interior ministry put the number of police personnel who sustained injuries in the hundreds.
Critics within the anti-Mélenchon camp have put forward accusations that France Unbowed stoked youth protest activity as a way of advancing the party's position at the ballot box. Mélenchon, whose party has aligned itself with the movement, told reporters the organisation is backing — though not directing — the protests, and has called for them to remain peaceful.
At 75, Mélenchon is entering the 2027 French presidential race for a fourth time, with outreach to younger voters forming part of his campaign strategy. Young voters cast ballots at lower rates than older age groups during the 2022 presidential election, yet their numbers are now large enough to place Mélenchon in contention for the second round in May — if he can bring them out to vote in adequate numbers. Speaking to supporters on Thursday, Mélenchon expressed his hope that the country's young people would come away from this period having gained and learned something they could carry into future elections.
