"I See My Teachers More Than My Family": France's High Schoolers Revolt as 5,000 Arrests Fail to Quell Protests
Hundreds of schools closed, more than 170 pupils and 78 staff injured, and Mélenchon positioning himself as the students' protector. Macron's government is bracing for the biggest test yet.
France's high school students are not going back to class. After a weekend pause, they are returning to the barricades this week in a protest movement that has rattled Emmanuel Macron's government and shows no sign of burning out. The interior ministry says police made more than 5,000 arrests last week — 85 percent of them minors — in clashes with students that left hundreds of people injured. The question now is whether the violence on the margins will worsen and blur the line between protest and riot, and whether the government will escalate an already muscular police response.
The movement began in mid-September in Créteil, in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, where teachers and students mobilised against a lack of staff at a local lycée. From there it spread with remarkable speed — class strikes, blockades and demonstrations moved to other Paris suburbs, then across the country, reaching high schools even in small towns. Around 400 to 500 schools have been forced to close because of damage or attacks targeting staff, and the education minister expects many to remain shut into this week. More than 170 pupils and 78 staff members have been injured.
What unites the protesters is a sense of betrayal. Students say the teaching, facilities and opportunities available to them are not the same as those offered to pupils in wealthier neighbourhoods — despite France's national motto of "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." The placards held up by the first protesters in Créteil said it plainly: "Too many inequalities, we're disgusted," "Education is a right, not a privilege," and "Sorry to bother, it's for our future."
"The public needs to know that conditions for studying are no longer what they were for us," said Sophie Bordy, a 50-year-old literature teacher in Paris. "It has deteriorated significantly." Pupils complain that in summer heat waves they roast in classrooms without air-conditioning, and in winter they freeze. French media have broadcast videos filmed inside dilapidated schools showing scampering rats, collapsed ceilings, leaks and broken furniture.
They also complain about the hours. In French high schools, classes often start at 8 a.m. and can run into the early evening. France's compulsory school hours are among the highest in Europe. "I see the teachers more than my family," read one young girl's placard.
Education remains one of the costliest items in the state budget Macron's government is proposing for 2027 — €65.5 billion for schools, more than the €63.4 billion proposed for defence. But the students say that money is not reaching them where it matters.
Into this volatile mix has stepped Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the 75-year-old leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, who is making his fourth run for the presidency in 2027 and is openly courting young voters. Mélenchon has urged party members and supporters to protect pupils from police by placing themselves between the two sides, and has denounced what he called the "savagery" of officers who have used tear gas and batons to break up crowds. Police riot-control projectiles are suspected in some of the facial injuries suffered by young protesters. Hundreds of police officers have also been injured.
Critics accuse France Unbowed of stoking and manipulating the students for political gain. Mélenchon insists his party supports the movement but is not organising it and wants it to remain non-violent. "What we want is for this country's young people to emerge from this episode with their heads held high, having won something and learned something, and to remember it when they cast their ballots," he said on Thursday.
That is the calculation. Young voters turned out less than other age groups in 2022, but if Mélenchon can mobilise them, they could help him finally qualify for the decisive second round in May — a feat that has always eluded him. Whether the students are fighting for their schools or being used as foot soldiers in someone else's campaign is a question that will not be settled on the barricades. What is certain is that France's classrooms have become the front line of a political battle that neither the government nor the opposition can afford to lose.
Written by Freya Stensrud freya.stensrud@alpineweekly.com