Another Day of Protests Unfurls in France’s Autumn of Discontent

The crowds were smaller on Saturday than in previous weeks’ demonstrations, but the animating sense of grievance remained.

By Mark Landler and Ségolène Le Stradic

Reporting from Paris

Nov. 7, 2026

French students and workers rallied for a fourth consecutive Saturday in Paris and other cities, drawing smaller but still spirited crowds, two days after a general strike brought more than half a million people into the streets.

The government estimated that 146,000 people turned out, about half the size of the crowds the previous Saturday. But the protests, which evolved last month from a student-focused movement into a national one, have shown no signs of petering out, suggesting the depth and breadth of grievances in the country.

The students are protesting the disrepair of their high schools, a shortage of teachers and an unpopular university admissions process; workers are demanding higher wages and improved public services.

“I came to support the youth; I find their claims to be legitimate,” said France Lucat, 44, who traveled 25 miles to join the demonstration in Paris. “And I am also very shocked by the police violence.”

It was the first time she had joined since the protests began, she said. Ms. Lucat said she had feared it could be unsafe, having seen coverage of the unrest, but chose to come see for herself. Next week, she will bring her children, she said. “That’s also why I came,” she said, “because I am afraid, and I shouldn’t be afraid.”

Her sister, Alice Courtieux, 52, held a sign saying “Macron You Trumped Us!” to protest what she called “the drift toward the right and the far right by this authoritarian government.” Both women expressed frustration with the lack of response to the demands of students and workers. But, Ms. Courtieux said, “It’s by joining demonstrations that you find hope again.”

“Generation Z is waking up and rousing the whole of France,” said Sandrine Rousseau, a lawmaker with the Green Party who joined protesters in Paris, wearing the tricolor sash of elected officials.

Brushing aside the idea that the movement was dwindling, Ms. Rousseau said the smaller crowd was no surprise, two days after huge, carefully orchestrated demonstrations. “I don’t know how it will all end,” she said, “but to me, it feels a bit like a revolution, a surge of civic spirit, an infinite sense of hope.”

The demonstrations were largely peaceful, though protesters clashed with the police in some cities, including Paris, Bordeaux, Marseille and Lyon, and unauthorized gatherings took place in cities like Rennes, in western France.

Some protesters tried to “disrupt the marches and enter restricted areas,” according to the Interior Ministry, but they were “systematically contained and hampered.”

In Paris, a small group affiliated with the Yellow Vests — a movement that protested against high gas prices between 2018 and 2020 — tried to hold a renegade demonstration at Place de la Concorde, close to the Élysée Palace, where President Emmanuel Macron has his residence and office.

The authorities arrested 360 people nationwide and conducted nearly 40,000 spot checks to prevent people from taking weapons to protest areas. Some 70,000 police officers were marshaled on Saturday, matching the deployment for the last three major protests.

The prime minister’s office plans to hold a “social conference” on Monday with organizations representing business leaders and workers to discuss wages and the cost of living.

Separate meetings with civil servants unions and with representatives of high school students are also planned. There will also be a session with students, parents, teachers and lawmakers dedicated to the overhaul of the college admission platform, which students have harshly criticized.

“It is time for the government to finally acknowledge that there is a real issue regarding purchasing power,” Marylise Léon, the head of the C.F.D.T., one of the country’s main workers’ unions, said on Friday in a broadcast interview. “So we need to sit down at the table, keeping in mind that it is also, ultimately, the responsibility of employers to provide decent wages.”

Since the protests on Oct. 17, which degenerated into arson and looting, the government has labored to prevent disorder. While there have been no fatalities caused by the violence — one person died of cardiac arrest during the Oct. 17 rally — the strain on France’s police and security services appeared to be spilling into other areas.

The foreign ministry announced it would move a high-level diplomatic meeting to Paris from Marseille next week, citing “logistical and operational” reasons. The meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of 7 advanced industrial nations had been planned for Monday and Tuesday in the Pharo Palace, a 19th-century building, less than a mile from streets looted on Oct. 17, that overlooks Marseille’s harbor.

But the government opted to move the meeting at the last minute because, officials said, it fell just before the Paris Peace Forum, a conference that gathers world leaders to discuss war, peace and conflict resolution.

In addition to the unrest, the authorities have also been dealing with a number of fake bomb threats against commercial flights in Europe, several of which were crossing French territory.

“It was a combination of logistical and operational considerations that led us to decide, as the deadline approached, to relocate the event to Paris,” Pascal Confavreux, a spokesman for the ministry, said on Thursday.

Mr. Confavreux did not address the protests or bomb threats specifically. But he said there were “operational issues for the teams, involving protocols and logistics, with two extremely important events taking place back-to-back. And that’s why it was important that we not overburden the teams.”

Giulia Imbert contributed reporting.

Mark Landler is the Paris bureau chief of The Times, covering France, as well as American foreign policy in Europe and the Middle East. He has been a journalist for more than three decades.

Ségolène Le Stradic a reporter and researcher for The Times, based in Paris.