France School Blockades Reach Paris as Unions Join Students

High-school students, parents and trade unions marched across France on Tuesday in the largest day so far of a protest over crowded classrooms, missing teachers and ageing school buildings.

The interior ministry counted about 86,000 marchers outside Paris by early afternoon. Police expected 20,000 to 40,000 in the capital, on a route from Place de la République toward Place de la Nation. The protests began on 21 September at Saint-Exupéry high school in a Paris suburb and then spread.

What protesters are asking for

Students cite classes of 35 to 40, teachers who are not replaced when absent, and buildings in poor repair. Banners in Paris included lines saying they wanted to be heard, not tear-gassed, and that their future was not optional. A fertility spike around 2010 has put more teenagers in secondary school, while secondary schools have fewer teachers than in 2008 despite about 250,000 more students, CNN reported.

The High School Students Union said more than half of France's roughly 3,700 high schools were blockaded or closed for the day. Teaching unions including the FSU, CGT, FO, CFDT, UNSA, SUD and Solidaires called members out. CGT leader Sophie Binet said union members would be there to protect high-school students.

Clashes, arrests and one severe injury

Police used tear gas and, in Rennes, water cannon. Some protesters built barricades and set fires. The justice ministry said 5,060 people had been arrested since the protests began, 87 percent of them minors. The government said 215 students and 715 police officers had been injured.

On Monday a 15-year-old in northern France lost a hand after, according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, possibly picking up a stun grenade fired by riot officers. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's office called for peaceful gatherings and said ministers must send school-repair proposals by the end of October.

The political setting

The marches land on a government under budget pressure, months before the 2027 election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, who cannot run again. The education dispute is separate from that campaign, but it is now a test of whether the Lecornu government can answer a youth movement without further street clashes.

Sources

Reuters, BBC, The New York Times, The Guardian, CNN and RFI, 6 October 2026.