French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened an emergency cabinet meeting in Paris on Thursday as student-led demonstrations over decaying school facilities, staffing shortages, and long hours erupted into widespread urban violence, resulting in nearly 3,000 detentions nationwide since the unrest began.
The protests, which originated in the Île-de-France region before spreading across the country, have disrupted hundreds of educational institutions with roughly 900 demonstrations, blockades, and related incidents unfolding outside high schools. The interior ministry reported that 1,949 people were detained on Thursday alone, bringing the total number of lycée students aged 15 to 18 detained since the start of the movement to nearly 3,000.
University students have also joined the movement, with at least 30 campuses blockaded, including institutions in Paris and Marseille. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez stated that police had opened internal investigations into brutality allegations involving three students.
Clashes And Arson Attacks Spread Across French Cities
Demonstrations outside secondary schools have increasingly degenerated into clashes with riot police, who have deployed tear gas and riot-control projectiles. Officials reported dozens of injuries among both law enforcement and protesters, including 305 police officers injured on Thursday. Over 300 police and dozens of firefighters, teachers, and pupils have been injured overall.
In Marseille, a headteacher at Victor Hugo high school suffered injuries after being splashed with petrol during an attempt to throw fuel into a rubbish bin as violent student protests raged. In the same city, attackers forced firefighters to flee a vehicle, then set it alight. Protesters also set e-scooters on fire near Saint-Charles high school in Marseille.
Additional blazes and property destruction were reported in Nantes, where a fire broke out at Nelson Mandela high school, as well as in Lille, where young people wearing black hoodies destroyed a bus stop and rubbish bins were set outside the Lycée César Baggio. In Toulouse, several bin fires were reported, while in Strasbourg, barriers were used to obstruct nearby tram tracks and bins were set alight outside a school.
Students Protest Over Infrastructure And Classroom Conditions
Protesting students have voiced deep frustration with the physical state of their schools and demanding academic schedules.
The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small.
Raphael, a 17-year-old student, via Agence France-Presse
Education Minister Édouard Geffray acknowledged that difficulties in high schools should be acknowledged and addressed, though he stressed that violence remained indefensible.
Unrest Becomes Political Flashpoint In Presidential Campaign
Interest payments by France are projected to total approximately €79 billion this year, and authorities forecast this amount could climb to €91 billion by 2027.
The protests have quickly become a polarizing issue in the political race to succeed President Emmanuel Macron, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term next May. Government officials and hard-right figures have accused the radical left La France Insoumise (LFI) party of encouraging the unrest. Meanwhile, the Republican mayor of Nice, Eric Ciotti, proposed that financial responsibility for school property damage should fall squarely on the shoulders of the culprits’ parents.
LFI leader and presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon rejected the accusations, insisting that his party supported non-violent methods of struggle and arguing that his greatest worry is an unbearable level of police violence directed at the young demonstrators. Valérie Pécresse, the conservative president of the Île-de-France region and a member of The Republicans, criticized LFI, stating that 75 schools had been disrupted in the region and 36 had become an arena of violence, clashes, and damage to property, while offering to send the bill to LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko of Saint-Denis.
Geffray Issues Remote Learning Directives For Schools
Education Minister Geffray instructed schools to hold classes remotely whenever blockades or property damage place students and staff at risk.
Geffray is scheduled to meet successively with representative staff unions, parent associations, and student associations on Friday to address the escalating crisis.