French security forces detained more than 620 people on Wednesday as high-school student protests over overcrowding, teacher shortages, and crumbling facilities escalated into violent clashes and arson attacks, prompting Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to convene an emergency cabinet meeting in Paris.
The unrest began last week in the Île-de-France region surrounding the capital before spreading rapidly to cities nationwide, including Lille, Lyon, Bordeaux, Marseille, Nantes, and Strasbourg. Teenagers attending secondary lycées have erected blockades outside school entrances to demand immediate fixes for deteriorating campus conditions, overloaded timetables, and unmanageable class sizes. Students across several cities have cited classrooms holding up to 34 pupils and sweltering heat during recent warm weather.
Emergency Cabinet Meeting Called as Protests Trigger Nationwide Arrests
With demonstrations multiplying outside roughly 356 to 400 schools, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu ordered ministers to cancel travel plans and assembled a crisis cabinet meeting in Paris. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez condemned an escalation of violence outside educational institutions after Wednesday’s actions left 83 police officers and gendarmes wounded alongside 32 teachers and pupils.
Police detained over 625 people on Wednesday alone, following hundreds of earlier arrests that brought the interior ministry’s total of detained lycée students past the thousands. Education Minister Édouard Geffray urged schools to conduct remote classes where physical access remains blocked by demonstrators.
Nearly 3,000 students aged between 15 and 18 had been detained since the demonstrations began, according to the interior ministry, with 1,949 detained on Thursday alone. Prime Minister Lecornu’s office stated that the upsurge in violence made it virtually impossible to maintain public education continuity and put staff and students in danger. Over 300 police personnel and dozens of firefighters, teachers, and pupils have been injured during the unrest. Vincent Latour, a professor of British studies at Toulouse Jean University, noted that summer heat waves helped expose chronic government under-funding of education.
Arson Attacks and Clashes Erupt Across Regional Cities
While many student demonstrations remained peaceful, severe vandalism and direct attacks on public safety personnel were reported in multiple regional centers. In Marseille, attackers doused a headteacher at Victor Hugo high school with gasoline, causing injuries, while a separate crowd surrounded a fire truck responding to a blaze at Saint-Exupéry high school, forcing firefighters to flee before setting the vehicle on fire. Additional fires were reported at Nelson Mandela high school in Nantes and inside buildings in Marseille.
Police deployed tear gas in Lille and Lyon to disperse crowds throwing projectiles, fireworks mortars, and rubbish bins.
In Seine-Saint-Denis, a low-income department in the northern suburbs of Paris, local LFI Mayor Bally Bagayoko joined a protest with hundreds of students at Lycée Paul-Eluard, describing the demonstrations as completely legitimate and asserting that low-income areas receive fewer resources than wealthier districts. Video posted to social media showed Mayor Bagayoko joining students, smiling and high-fiving pupils after a trash can was set on fire in the street. Both President Emmanuel Macron and Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez accused far-left groups and agitators of moving from school to school to incite violence during the protests.
Political Flashpoint Over Budget Cuts and Presidential Ambitions
The student mobilization coincided with a broader nationwide public-sector strike involving civil servants and firefighters opposing government austerity plans. The protests have become an intense political liability for the administration, which announced spending cuts in its draft 2027 budget. France’s debt servicing costs are expected to reach €79 billion this year and climb toward €91 billion in 2027.
Government officials have accused the far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party of exploiting the unrest ahead of next May’s presidential election to succeed President Emmanuel Macron. Ministers criticized LFI figures, including Saint-Denis Mayor Bally Bagayoko, for encouraging demonstrators and visiting protest sites. President Macron, speaking in Madrid, acknowledged that students faced legitimate concerns regarding school infrastructure but insisted that grievances could in no way justify violence and attacks on public servants.
High schools are meant to be open and to share knowledge.
President Emmanuel Macron
