Why France is on the streets: how a school protest became a national revolt

How did it start?

With a single school blockade in a Paris suburb on 21 September.

Pupils at the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil, south-east of Paris, barricaded their school over teachers who had not been replaced, classes that were too crowded and a building that was falling apart. Videos of the blockade spread on social media, other lycées added their own complaints, and within days schools across the Paris region were blocked.

“We decided to expand what is happening in the Paris region because these issues are present throughout the country,” said Ryad Rani, president of the high school students’ union USL. On 6 October about 4.5 lakh students, parents and teachers marched across France, around a lakh of them in Paris.

What are the students angry about?

Missing teachers, overcrowded classrooms, crumbling buildings and a university admissions system they find opaque.

In the 2024-25 school year nearly a tenth of scheduled class hours in French public high schools went untaught. Classes of more than 35 are common, school days can run from 8 am into the late afternoon, and this year’s heatwaves exposed crumbling, unventilated classrooms.

Behind the practical complaints sits a broader charge that French schooling sorts children by background. At 15, pupils are steered either to a general or a vocational track on the strength of their marks, and those from poorer homes end up disproportionately in vocational schools. The path to the elite grandes écoles, which supply much of the country’s political and business class, is dominated by the children of professionals.

What is Parcoursup?

The national online platform through which every school leaver has applied to university since 2018.

Students list the courses they want and universities accept or reject them on their records. Protesters call it opaque and stressful, and an overhaul of Parcoursup has become one of their main demands. “Overloaded schedules, the system, the teachers, people who don’t listen to us, the university application process,” was how one 18-year-old protester, Salama Gargouri, summed up the list.

How did a school protest become a cost-of-living revolt?

Because it arrived just as fuel, food and energy prices bit, and as the government was preparing a tight budget.

Diesel has been in short supply in France; on a Gulf tour last week Macron lined up monthly deliveries from the UAE, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s 2027 budget would freeze public-sector pay and limit pension rises, as France tries to bring down a deficit of 5.1% of GDP.

The government dropped plans to raise some university fees and offered 3,000 substitute teachers. Unions rejected that as too little and called a national day of action on 13 October. On 17 October the CGT union and activists from the 2018 Yellow Vest movement joined the students. The interior ministry counted 5.5 lakh marchers; organisers said 8 lakh.

Five weeks of protest in France

1. 21 Sep 2026Pupils blockade the Lycée Saint-Exupéry in Créteil over missing teachers and a run-down building.
2. 6 OctAbout 4.5 lakh students, parents and teachers march across France.
3. 13 OctNational day of action after unions reject the offer of 3,000 substitute teachers.
4. 17 OctUnions and Yellow Vests join; 5.5 lakh march, Limoges city hall is set on fire, more than 2,300 are arrested.
5. 19 OctCurfews in Paris, Bordeaux, Nice and other cities.
6. 24 OctSecond mass Saturday: 4.1 lakh march under a 70,000-strong police deployment, nearly 1,000 arrests.
7. 31 OctStudents have called their next national march.

How violent has it been?

The first big Saturday brought the worst rioting France has seen in years; the second was calmer but still tense.

On 17 October Limoges city hall was set alight, protesters forced their way into Marseille’s, and shops were looted in Paris, Lyon and elsewhere. More than 2,300 people were arrested that day and nearly 1,000 police officers and gendarmes were hurt. Protesters were injured too, including a young man in Saint-Étienne who lost a hand. The business lobby Medef says at least 3,000 businesses were hit.

Last Saturday the government put 70,000 police on the streets, shut the Louvre and banned marches in several cities. About 4.1 lakh people turned out, nearly 1,000 were arrested and police fired tear gas in Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities after dark. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called it more positive than the week before.

What has the government done?

First it promised order, then it admitted mistakes, and now it is offering concessions.

Macron spoke of his “anger and shame” after the first riots and later conceded “failures in anticipation and intelligence”. He refused Nuñez’s offer to resign, imposed targeted curfews and described the work of far-left groups as “sedition”. On Friday he met student representatives and promised more teachers and an overhaul of Parcoursup. The students were not satisfied, and have called another march for Saturday 31 October.

Why does it matter beyond France?

Because France elects a new president next spring, and the protests have become the campaign’s first big test.

Macron cannot stand again. Jean-Luc Mélenchon of France Unbowed has marched with the students and predicts weekly protests until the government gives way. The National Rally of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, which leads the polls, accuses the government of failing to keep order. Similar cost-of-living protests have turned violent in Italy and Belgium, and India’s foreign ministry has advised its citizens in France, Italy and Belgium to stay away from demonstrations.