France school protests return as students rally over inequality and police response
High school students in France are expected to return to protests this week after a weekend lull, extending a movement that has put President Emmanuel Macron's government under pressure. A key question now is whether violence on the fringes of the demonstrations will worsen and further blur the line between protest and rioting, and whether the government will strengthen an already forceful police response.
The movement will face another test on Tuesday, when the influential CGT labour union has urged workers to join the demonstrations. According to the interior minister, police made more than 5,000 arrests last week, with 85 per cent of those detained being minors. Hundreds of people have also been injured.
The protests began in the Paris region in mid-September, when teachers and students mobilised over a lack of staff at a lyce, or high school, in Creteil in the south-eastern outskirts of the French capital. Class strikes, blockades and demonstrations then spread across other Paris suburbs and later across the country, including to high schools in smaller towns.
According to the education minister, hundreds of schools have had to close because of damage or attacks targeting staff. He said more than 170 pupils and 65 staff members have been injured.
From the outset, pupils said they were protesting against inequalities in the school system, arguing that teaching, facilities and opportunities for advancement are poorer for students in disadvantaged neighbourhoods despite France's national motto, "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." Placards carried by early protesters in Creteil read, "Too many inequalities, we're disgusted," "Education is a right, not a privilege," and "Sorry to bother, it's for our future," according to photos posted by Clmence Guett, the district's lawmaker in the National Assembly.
Students in other places said they suffer through summer heat waves in classrooms without air-conditioning and face cold classrooms in winter. French media have broadcast videos showing rats, collapsed ceilings, leaks, broken furniture and other problems inside run-down schools. "The public needs to know that conditions for studying are no longer what they were for us," said Sophie Bordy, a 50-year-old literature teacher in Paris. "It has deteriorated significantly."
At the same time, education remains one of the biggest items in the state budget proposed by Macron's government for 2027. It has set aside 65.5 billion euros for schools, compared with 63.4 billion euros for defence. Pupils have also complained about long school days, with classes often starting at 8 am and continuing until early evening. According to European Union figures, compulsory school hours for French high school students are among the highest in Europe. One placard photographed by Le Parisien read, "I see the teachers more than my family."
The protests have also drawn strong support from the far-left France Unbowed party. Guett, who posted photos of herself with the first protesters in Creteil, including one with a bullhorn, is seen as a rising figure in the party. Other France Unbowed lawmakers and elected representatives also met pupils and backed their demands.
Party leader Jean-Luc Mlenchon urged members and supporters to protect pupils from the police by placing themselves between the two sides. He has denounced what he called the "savagery" of police officers, saying they have made wide use of tear gas and batons to break up crowds. Riot-control projectiles used by police are suspected in some of the facial injuries suffered by young protesters.
Critics have accused Mlenchon and France Unbowed of fuelling and exploiting the protests for political gain. Mlenchon, a 75-year-old anti-capitalist who is making his fourth run for the French presidency, has said his party supports the movement but is not organising it and wants it to remain non-violent. Young voters turned out less than other age groups in the 2022 presidential election, but they could help him reach the decisive second-round run-off in May if he can mobilise them. "What we want is for this country's young people to emerge from this episode with their heads held high, having won something and learned something, and to remember it when they cast their ballots," Mlenchon said on Thursday.
As students prepare to return to the streets and unions weigh in, the protests have grown from a local dispute over school staffing into a wider national movement over inequality, conditions in schools and the government's response.
