Some 400 schools in France remained closed this Friday, October 2, due to student protests. The demonstrations that began last week at high schools in the Paris region have spread throughout the country and have become increasingly violent. Students are mobilizing for various demands, including the lack of teachers and the deterioration of school buildings.

First modification: 10/02/2026 - 20:58 Last modification: 10/02/2026 - 21:28

Riot police clashed with high school students across the country this Friday, October 2, and unions called teachers to strike, as President Emmanuel Macron's government struggles to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and education funding.

Tear gas flooded the streets of Strasbourg, in the east of the country, fireworks were launched at police lines in Marseille, in the south, and garbage containers were set on fire in Rennes, in the west.

Human rights groups have accused the Police of using forceful tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal weapons that fire rubber projectiles (flash-ball type). French authorities have opened four investigations to examine allegations of police violence.

One of these investigations will examine the case of a 16-year-old boy who suffered an eye injury after police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters, according to his friends.

In Rennes, tension was already palpable outside the Jean-Macé institute, where there were students dressed in black and wearing balaclavas, located not far from a heavy police deployment.

"For our part, we have won: our school is closed this morning," declared Lola, 16, who preferred not to provide her last name.

The protester condemned what she described as police violence.

"It makes us even more angry; the police have no right to beat us or throw tear gas at us."

James, a high school student from the northern city of Lille, also denounced what he called "extremely violent police repression, which inevitably fuels students' anger."

"When we see colleagues being beaten, suffocated, blinded in one eye and attacked with tear gas from all sides while we are simply trying to dialogue with the government, it is logical that people get angry," he said.

Read alsoStudents tighten blockades in France: they spray a school principal with gasoline

“External agitators”

Some 170 students have been injured since the start of the movement, according to the Minister of Education, Édouard Geffray, while more than 100 institutes have suffered “serious damage”.

In statements made on Friday afternoon, he noted that some 735 institutes - out of a total of 3,700 in the country - had been affected "in one way or another", although he stressed that the figure was 30% lower than that of Thursday.

At least 65 staff members — including 40 center directors — have also suffered injuries as protests have turned violent at times. Geffray said three staff members were injured Friday, down from 31 the previous day.

In La Ciotat, near Marseille, a young man doused a teacher with gasoline, according to a spokesman for the region's education authority. In a video broadcast on social media by 'BFM TV', a man is seen wiping his face after a hooded person with his face covered sprayed him with liquid from a bottle. Reuters was unable to verify the circumstances of the incident.

In Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, protesters set fire to various objects, including fences, and threw firecrackers at riot officers before fleeing.

The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Núñez, described as “unusual and intolerable violence” the images from the city of Belfort (east of the country) in which a group of young people is seen surrounding a lone police officer and kicking him to the ground.

Following a government crisis meeting on Thursday, a source close to the prime minister said the demonstrations had gone from being a protest movement to becoming episodes of urban violence; For his part, the Minister of Justice, Gérald Darmanin, declared that the movement had been instrumentalized by "external agitators."

Several students from the Paris region that the Reuters news agency spoke to earlier in the week commented that they would stay out of the protests this Friday due to the escalation of violence.

Read alsoFrance: Police clash with students during blockades of institutes in several cities

“A real state of anxiety”

Six months before next year's presidential elections, opinion polls consistently reflect the deep unpopularity of Macron and his center-right government. Planned budget cuts, which exacerbate the funding crisis in education, have fueled discontent. For their part, the unions called a teachers' strike for Tuesday, a week after the strikes carried out by public sector workers.

“(The violence) is regrettable, but when demands are ignored for years, and given the political and geopolitical context, there are various conditions that put students in a state of real anxiety,” declared Professor Sandra Champain-Seller.

Protests broke out last week in the Paris region, but have become increasingly violent as they spread across the country.

Darmanin told radio station 'RTL' that the Police had detained 2,000 people – mostly teenagers – since the start of the protests, and insisted that the parents of young people who cause material damage should pay for the reparations.

Four hundred secondary schools – roughly one in ten – remained closed on Friday due to the unrest, while Geffray urged parents to prevent their children from taking part in the protests.

Some parents supported the protests.

Vincent Martin met his daughter outside the Hélène Boucher institute in Paris and said that the students were "absolutely right to demand better learning conditions."

Read alsoSocial tension rises in France with a strike by civil servants and student protests

Budget cuts

Students blocking high schools have expressed outrage over overcrowding in classrooms, a constant lack of teachers and deteriorating buildings, attributing the situation to years of underinvestment.

"There are 35 of us per class, we don't have enough chairs in the classrooms and lunchtime is too short for everyone to eat," Kesia, 15, told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin, before running away when police used tear gas.

According to the draft budget for 2027 presented on Thursday by the government, the allocation for education will increase by 1.7% – a percentage lower than inflation – to reach 65.53 billion euros ($73.77 billion), not counting teachers' pensions.

Education has traditionally been the largest budget item, but this will change next year as debt service costs are expected to reach €74.5 billion, according to the bill.

According to the OECD global policy forum, France's spending on education is at an intermediate level among member countries and increased between 2015 and 2022, although its relative weight in the total budget has decreased slightly.

Intelligence services reportedly told the crisis meeting that the protest movement had been driven by politicians from the left-wing France Insoumise (LFI) party.

Prominent LFI lawmakers rejected these accusations and blamed the government for politicizing the protests ahead of the elections.

With Reuters and AFP

Related keywords

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.