Paris (France) (AFP) - French students closed some secondary schools on Monday after returning from the fall break, seeking to reactivate the protest movement despite concessions made by the government during the holiday period.
Published on: 02/11/2026 - 10:37
The closures came after hundreds of thousands of people, including students, took to the streets across France on Saturday, in the third consecutive weekend of protest demonstrations.
The demonstrations against the high cost of living began after high school students launched protests in September against educational conditions and social inequality.
The government announced measures that include amending the university admission mechanism, ensuring the availability of a larger number of teachers, and setting a ceiling on the number of students per class.
But some students say these steps are not enough.
In the city of Marseille in southern France, protesters placed several waste containers in front of the entrance to a secondary school on Monday morning.
“We resumed moving because, as we were told, we received some answers, but... clearly that is not enough,” Maryam (16 years old) told AFP, while sitting on one of the containers.
Education Minister Edouard Jeffrey said that only a limited number of the 3,700 French secondary schools were subject to closure, most of which are located in the Paris region, in addition to regions in the north and south of the country.
He told France Inter radio that students must return to classes to avoid failing exams.
He added, "I have students who will take the baccalaureate exam at the end of the year, and several hundred thousand of them have not attended classes for four or five weeks."
President Emmanuel Macron called for the resumption of studies calmly, considering that "young people have been listened to."
With the European Union's second-largest economy on the verge of recession, and under pressure to curb public debt, the government has little scope to calm protesting students by increasing spending.
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© 2026 AFP
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