French PM Holds Crisis Meeting as Student Protests Spread Nationwide

High school protests in France spread to universities on Thursday as students demanding more funding, smaller classes and the replacement of absent teachers continued blockades across the country. The government has announced a new platform to hear high school students' grievances, after days of protests that have left students and police injured. 

Issued on: 01/10/2026 - 11:58

By RFI

The unrest disrupted public transport in several cities, while Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting as the government sought to contain the protests.

Some 340 demonstrations were under way outside high schools by mid-morning on Thursday, with more than 160 schools closed as a result, police said.

Around 30 university campuses were blocked on Thursday, the Union Étudiante (Student Union) said, including sites in Paris, Strasbourg, Marseille, Lyon, Reims, Poitiers and Nanterre.

The movement began in high schools about a week ago and had spread to 356 schools across the country by Wednesday, the Interior Ministry said.

Student grievances range from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves. 

Widening mobilisation

On Thursday, hundreds of pupils in Strasbourg blocked traffic and a tram line outside Couffignal high school and set rubbish containers on fire. In Saint-Denis, north of Paris, clashes broke out between young people and police, with mortar fireworks and tear gas used.

In Nantes, a fire broke out at Nelson Mandela high school after a rubbish-bin fire spread to the building, students told French daily Le Parisien.

At Victor Hugo high school in Marseille, the head teacher, deputy head, secretary-general and another staff member were attacked and splashed with petrol, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional authorities said.

In Auchel, northern France, the head teacher of Fernand Degrugillier vocational high school was injured in the ear by a mortar firework and taken to hospital.

The Pas-de-Calais prefecture said 37 people had been detained following violence around schools in the department.

French high school and university students protest outside the Lycee Frederic Bartholdi high school in the Seine-Saint-Denis department near Paris, 1 October 2026.

The latest incidents follow violence at school blockades earlier in the week.

On Wednesday, 625 people were detained during high school blockades, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said – noting an "expansion of the movement" and condemning an "escalation of violence" outside certain schools.

Eighty-three police officers and gendarmes were wounded.

The minister condemned the "targeting of law enforcement officers, the throwing of projectiles, acts of violence, verbal abuse, attempted arson, and what amounts... to urban violence".

Authorities reported burning rubbish bins, mortar fireworks and barricades in several locations.

Since the blockades began, 119 students and school staff have been injured, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said.

Clashes between French teens, police as school blockades intensify

Government response

Lecornu convened an interministerial crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry on Thursday afternoon. Nuñez, Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin were among those due to take part.

The prime minister also asked ministers to cancel or postpone official trips planned for the rest of the week and early next week so that prefectures could concentrate their resources on dealing with the protests.

Schools were asked to provide lessons remotely when damage or blockades prevented pupils from being received safely.

The ministry was preparing to roll out a consultation platform allowing all high school students to submit their concerns and demands. A national review of the proposals will then be used to provide what the government called “structured responses”.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron said: “I hear and I understand the anxieties, sometimes the anger, that our youth can have, whether about the climate, technological changes or geopolitical situations.”

He said he and the government were trying to respond “in the most concrete way possible”.

However, Macron said none of these debates or fears could justify the unrest and criticised hard-left politicians he accused of "legitimising violence".

Placards in front of an entrance to the Paris 8 University campus during a blockade by students, 1 October 2026. The placards read: "We're blocking everything. Everything is going wrong" and "At university just like in high school: resistance".

Hundreds held, dozens wounded as French school protests escalate

Police under investigation

France's police watchdog, the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), has opened three investigations into incidents in which students were injured during protests, Nuñez said.

The investigations concern incidents in Sevran, north-east of Paris, Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, north-west of the capital, and Tours in central France.

In Tours, a young man was injured in the head on Wednesday and taken to hospital. The public prosecutor said his injuries were “compatible” with being caused by a projectile fired from a police LBD, a type of non-lethal weapon.

Nuñez defended the conduct of the security forces, saying they had intervened “with a great deal of proportionality”.

USL, France's second-largest student union, called on Wednesday for protests to go into a “second act”.

It invited unions, associations and political organisations to join Thursday's demonstrations and further protests on 6 October, demanding “massive funding” for schools and universities.

The UNEF, France's third-largest student organisation, has also called on students to take to the streets across the country.

It is protesting against what it describes as a mass reduction in university places, as well as a freeze on housing benefit payments.

(with newswires)