France Enters its Third Week of Student Protests
France's student protests over school conditions are now in their third week, with nearly 6,900 arrests made so far amid a severely repressive police force, which has drawn criticism from several bodies over brutality against protestors.
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In a Nutshell
- Hundreds of thousands of students have protested across France since late September over staff shortages, overcrowded classrooms, deteriorating facilities and poorly organised timetables. One 16-year-old student in Lille told the BBC, “There aren't even enough chairs. We have to go and find some at the start of every lesson.” He added that 2,000 students had to share a canteen with only 50 minutes allocated for lunch.
- Students say their grievances go beyond school facilities. Alcidor, a student in Paris, told the BBC the movement reflected “strong anger from the youth in France that doesn't feel represented, that feels abandoned, that feels unheard and is scared of what's coming in the future.” A teacher who joined the protests said overcrowded classes of around 35 students had made it “impossible to give every child the attention they deserve.”
- The government has promised 3,000 additional supply teachers and a plan to address the crisis by the end of October, but students have continued their demonstrations. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called the unrest the most violent in decades, rejected claims of police repression and accused the hard-left France Unbowed party of trying to create electoral chaos.
- Police have arrested 6,877 people, mostly minors, while authorities report around 200 injured students and more than 700 injured police officers. France's internal police watchdog, IGPN, is investigating 24 cases linked to police conduct. Reuters has documented 28 injury cases, including two involving eye injuries and a 14-year-old, Eden, who suffered a broken jaw and extensive dental damage after a police officer fired a tear gas grenade at close range.
- A 15-year-old student in Lens lost his hand during a confrontation involving riot police and a grenade. Accounts differ over whether he picked up the device before it exploded. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez suspended the use of stun grenades pending an investigation. Police union representative Thierry Clair called such injuries “tragedies” but argued they should not call France's policing techniques into question, blaming the intensity of violence on protesters.
- Students and teachers have warned that police tactics could permanently damage young people's trust in democracy. Teacher and union representative Bastien Riez told the BBC that for many students, “this is their first experience of democracy and protest,” but they are met with “a sham of social dialogue and democracy.” Student Massicella, meanwhile, declared, “I personally want to reproduce 1968!”
- Marine Le Pen has condemned school vandalism and proposed making parents pay for damage caused by their children. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has supported the demonstrations and compared their potential to the 1968 uprising. Le Pen is the frontrunner in the 2027 presidential race, while Mélenchon has accused established political forces of failing to represent young people.
Context
France is famously known for its protests, earning this reputation from the May 1968 protests, which began at the University of Paris's Nanterre campus and gained support from the highest ranks of cultural institutions, with figures such as François Truffaut joining the protests.
Millions of workers joined strikes that paralysed the country and nearly brought down President Charles de Gaulle's government. As in 1968, the current student protests are largely being mobilised by student unions that have gathered over a quarter of a million people, including high school students and teachers, to call for reforms to France’s crumbling education system.
On September 21, students at Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, a southeastern suburb of Paris, were the first to protest inadequate support at their school, pointing out the number of unfilled teaching positions, overcrowded classrooms, and a lack of resources. Videos of their protests went viral on social media, sparking a wave of protests across Paris and the rest of France, with other school students complaining about the deterioration of facilities, including rodents overrunning classrooms, broken toilets, and staff shortages.
The government’s handling of protests has been sharply criticised by several rights groups, especially due to police use of so-called “non-lethal” or “less-lethal” weapons that have caused several debilitating injuries, such as one 15-year-old student whose hand was blown off after a stun grenade explosion at a school in Lens. France’s police watchdog, the IGPN, is conducting investigations into it, while human rights advocates and organisations like Amnesty International are calling for a complete ban on the use of these weapons in protest policing.
The movement comes ahead of the 2027 presidential election, with far-right figures such as Marine Le Pen blaming students for sc hool vandalism rather than proposing reforms. Only some politicians, such as left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, have backed the demonstrations and invoked the legacy of 1968.
Why It Matters
France’s protests are not an isolated event. This week alone, four major student-led protests have erupted across several countries, including Spain, Brazil, Chile and India. Most similar to France, students in Chile are protesting cuts to education, healthcare and labour budgets, with demonstrations beginning just a day after the far-right president released his proposed 2027 budget.
In neighbouring India, the Cockroach Janata Party and student groups have returned to the streets, this time demanding Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s resignation over his role in a voter roll revision that critics say removed 130 million names, while calling for the restoration of electoral integrity.
What We Think
On the surface, these protests appear to be reactions to widely different issues in each country's governance, but there is one thing in common here. The youth are showing that they are done accepting the substandard living conditions offered by their governments and are now asking for better futures for all.