On Tuesday, Greta Thunberg appeared alongside students gathered outside a secondary school in one of Paris's working-class suburbs, as French pupils continued a wave of street demonstrations over conditions in their schools.
Entering its fourth week, the countrywide protest action — centred on demands over teacher recruitment gaps, overcrowded classrooms, and the deteriorating state of school buildings — has drawn participants into street marches, blockades at hundreds of schools, and isolated confrontations with law enforcement.
At schools across Paris and other cities, students gathered at entrances from the morning onward, holding signs and megaphones while calling out slogans, with further processions set to move through the streets later that day.
Geffray, serving as Education Minister, told a news channel that roughly 200 schools had been shuttered, adding that a portion of those closures reflected precautionary decisions tied to the schools' locations along planned march routes.
Thunberg, whose profile grew out of teenage climate protests before her focus widened to other causes, expressed the view that the French students merited broader solidarity, noting that people across the globe were watching how events unfolded. Speaking to reporters gathered outside Lycée Paul Éluard in Saint-Denis — one of the schools where the movement first took hold — she expressed solidarity with young people pursuing their fundamental rights, while also raising concerns about inadequate school funding, the climate situation, and social inequality, arguing that a generation stepping forward to shape its own future was long overdue. She additionally characterised the police response, which has drawn considerable public debate, as reflecting an institutional tendency to shield existing power structures and disregard the demands being put forward by young people.
Tear gas was deployed and physical charges were made against demonstrators across multiple incidents, leaving hundreds with injuries and resulting in thousands of detentions. Authorities halted stun grenade deployment in the days following an incident in which a young person sustained the loss of a hand.
Some politicians raised objections to how the police handled the situation, while others drew attention to acts of violence, property damage at schools, and injuries sustained by both staff and officers.
With a presidential election roughly six months away, demonstrations across the country have contributed to a broader atmosphere of political and social unpredictability. Ministers have acknowledged the pupils' concerns and indicated a willingness to address them, though the room to act financially remains narrow — borrowing costs have climbed to their highest point in several years, with bond markets reflecting ongoing unease about the size of the national debt and the budget shortfall.
Le Pen, whose standing in opinion polls places her among the leading candidates to succeed Macron, has outlined plans to reduce government expenditure as a means of restoring fiscal balance.
