Dozens of individuals have been injured within the protests, together with college students, lecturers, and cops.
Printed On 8 Oct 2026
Protests have resumed at colleges throughout France as highschool college students press on with calls for for extra training funding and higher situations, the day after the nation’s prime minister ordered ministers to supply an motion plan.
Reporting from Paris, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler mentioned college college students and extra commerce unions have joined the nationwide protests and that a big rally is predicted within the capital on Thursday.
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“They’re transferring round, attempting to dam off the streets,” Butler mentioned from exterior one faculty, the place college college students had been barricading a big space.
“They’re out, they are saying, in solidarity with highschool college students as a result of they are saying it’s vital that as many younger folks be part of within the protests as attainable,” she added.
The wave of protests started in a highschool in a disadvantaged space of Paris on September 21 . Tens of hundreds of scholars throughout the nation have since marched with a variety of calls for, from renovated faculty buildings to fewer classroom hours.
Police response beneath scrutiny
Rights teams have accused safety officers of utilizing disproportionate pressure in opposition to protesters.
A number of demonstrators have been injured, together with one teenager who misplaced a hand and one other whose jaw was shattered by an exploding stun grenade. They’ve since been banned at marches.
Law enforcement officials and lecturers have additionally been injured, authorities say, accusing college students of committing violent acts. At the very least 6,600 arrests – principally of minors – have been made up to now, in keeping with the Inside Ministry.
Authorities mentioned 375 colleges had been both totally or partially closed on Thursday, and that two dozen had been burned or destroyed.
The demonstrations are growing strain on the cash-strapped outgoing authorities of Emmanuel Macron forward of April elections.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu condemned the violence in a TV handle on Wednesday. He faulted “political leaders who use this anger to conduct their electoral battles”, after opposition chief Jean-Luc Mélenchon known as for protesters to maintain marching.
Lecornu has ordered ministers to supply an motion plan responding to college students’ calls for by the tip of the month, however protesters stay unconvinced.
“So far as they’re involved, the federal government solely talks about options however by no means truly comes up with concrete actions, so they are saying they’ll preserve popping out onto the streets till their calls for are met,” Butler mentioned.
