More than 625 people—most of them students—have been arrested during two days of violent demonstrations near schools and universities across France. Students say they are protesting teacher shortages, crumbling facilities, overcrowded classrooms, government budget reductions and demanding timetables.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called an emergency meeting Thursday and canceled ministers’ travel plans as he turned his attention to the unrest. The protests began last week at schools in the Paris region before rapidly spreading.
A protesting student feeds a burnt barrier during a blockading action outside the secondary school Le Corbusier, in Aubervilliers, northern Paris on Oct. 1, 2026. (Lou Benoist/AFP Via Getty Images)
The movement disrupted more than 350 high schools and roughly 30 university campuses on Thursday alone, according to reports. RFI said 83 police officers and gendarmes were injured that day, while 119 students and school employees have been hurt since the unrest began last week.
Reuters reported that the principal of Marseille’s Victor Hugo High School was doused with gasoline and injured. Two other principals were hurt in attacks in Rouen and Petit-Quevilly. Police deployed tear gas in several cities, prompting students to accuse authorities of using excessive force. Officials, meanwhile, have warned of “urban violence” and attempted arson at several schools.
The unrest comes just two weeks after the government unveiled a series of widely unpopular spending reductions in its 2027 budget, turning the student demonstrations into a major political flashpoint at a particularly sensitive time for France’s government.
Students run from tear gas during ongoing student protest action and scuffles with police, in Lyon, central eastern France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Since late September, students have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. (Alex Martin AFP via Getty Images)
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told Reuters that “in certain places, there were individuals acting as agitators”—people who traveled from one school to another, he said, to provoke high school students and encourage acts of violence. Education Minister Edouard Geffray urged schools to switch to remote learning if protesters were blocking access to their buildings. “Violence will not keep our students from their fundamental right to an education,” he wrote on X.
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Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told News Media that students’ initial complaints about missing teachers and deteriorating school buildings were legitimate. But she said that dousing a principal with gasoline and attacking firefighters amounted to “extreme violence.” The political significance, she added, lies in the attempt to transform frustration over education into a much wider confrontation with the government.
The Associated Press reported that the protests are rapidly becoming a central issue in the campaign to choose a successor to President Emmanuel Macron next May. Far-left presidential contender Jean-Luc Mélenchon has condemned the government’s response as repressive. His party, La France Insoumise, or LFI, has faced accusations that it is exploiting the unrest for electoral gain and encouraging violence.
Students clash with police during ongoing student protest action, in Lyon, central eastern France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Since late September, students have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide. (Alex Martin AFP via Getty Images)
Rodan-Benzaquen said LFI had “actively supported the mobilization,” with party activists sharing footage of clashes, official accounts amplifying the images and elected representatives portraying themselves as allies of the students. With an election approaching next year, she said, “Mélenchon sees these mobilizations as a way to consolidate young voters and marginalize the moderate left. At a time of deep political, geopolitical and economic challenges, this is a very dangerous situation for France.”
French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the media at the end of an EU Summit in the Justus Lipsius building, the EU Council headquarters on March 22, 2024, in Brussels, Belgium. (Thierry Monasse/Getty Images)
Video shared on social media appears to show Seine-Saint-Denis mayor Bally Bagayoko, a member of LFI, joining students and smiling as he high-fived pupils after a trash can was set ablaze in the street. Valerie Pecresse, president of the Île-de-France region, told Radio Monte Carlo that LFI was issuing “a call to action” that amounted to “Trash your high school,” adding that the message was being circulated through TikTok challenges.
Speaking to reporters in Madrid on Wednesday, Macron said: “High schools are meant to be open and to share knowledge. They are not meant to be blockaded or to have trash cans set on fire.”