School protests by upper-secondary pupils are continuing in France. Pupils are demanding better learning conditions, and students from several universities have joined their protests, The Guardian and The Local report. The demonstrations began last week in the Île-de-France region, but quickly spread across the country and led to unrest.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting on 1 October. He instructed ministers to cancel all travel until the situation with the demonstrations is brought under control.
Lecornu’s office said that “the surge in violence is making it virtually impossible to ensure the continuity of state education and is putting staff and pupils at risk”. Today, Education Minister Édouard Geoffre plans to meet representatives of the demonstrators.
Pupils’ dissatisfaction has been driven by a range of issues: from overloaded timetables and overcrowded classrooms to a shortage of teachers and overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwave.
According to police, around 900 demonstrations, blockades and related incidents took place nationwide near lycées, resulting in more than 160 institutions suspending operations. On Thursday, access was blocked to around 30 university campuses, including in Paris and Marseille.
Since the start of the protests, nearly 3,000 lycée pupils aged 15 to 18 have been detained, including 1,949 on Thursday alone, the Interior Ministry said. More than 300 police officers and dozens of firefighters, teachers and pupils were injured.
Most injuries were caused by thrown objects, but also by crowd-control munitions used by police. The Interior Ministry announced an internal service investigation following accusations that officers used excessive force and brutality against three pupils.
Rubbish bins were set alight outside many schools, and more serious attempted arson was recorded inside some buildings. Fire damage at one school in Nantes in the north-west was so extensive that it will remain closed for a month, authorities said.
The government accused the radical left party La France Insoumise (LFI) of inciting the protests; several LFI MPs and mayors, including Bally Bagayoko, the party’s mayor of the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, were greeted with applause at demonstrations.
The party’s candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, insisted on Thursday that LFI supports “non-violent methods of struggle”, adding that his “greatest concern is the intolerable level of police violence against these young people”.