France rocked by student riots as hundreds arrested, violence spreads nationwide

Over 625 people, mostly students, have been arrested over two days of violent protests near schools and universities across France over what students say are staffing shortages, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded classes, government budget cuts and long schedules.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting Thursday, canceling ministers’ trips to focus on the protests, which began last week in Paris-region schools and have snowballed. 

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Reports say over 350 high schools and about 30 university campuses were affected by the movement on Thursday alone. RFI reported 83 police and gendarmes were wounded today, with 119 students and school staffers injured since the start of unrest last week.

Reuters reported the principal of Marseille’s Victor Hugo high school was doused in gasoline and injured, while 2 other principals were injured in attacks in Rouen and Petit-Quevilly. Police used tear gas in several cities, with Reuters reporting students accusing authorities of heavy‑handed tactics. Meanwhile, authorities are warning of “urban violence” and attempted arson at multiple schools.

The protests coincide with the government announcing a series of unpopular spending cuts in its 2027 budget two weeks ago, and have become a political flashpoint at a ​sensitive moment for the French government.

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Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told Reuters that, “in certain places, there were individuals acting as agitators — people who moved from one school to another to stir up high school and other students and incite them to commit acts of violence.” Education Minister Edouard Geffray called for schools to hold classes remotely if protesters were blocking their premises, posting on X that “Violence will not keep our students from their fundamental right to ​an education.”

Senior Envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Simone Rodan-Benzaquen told Fox News Digital, “The students’ grievances about missing teachers and deteriorating schools were real at first. But dousing a principal in gasoline and attacking firefighters are acts of extreme violence. What makes this politically significant is the effort to turn frustration over schools into a much broader confrontation with the government.”

The Associated Press reported the protests are quickly blowing up as a hot topic in the election campaign to replace President Emmanuel Macron next May. Far-left presidential hopeful Jean-Luc Mélenchon has decried the government response to the protests as repressive. Critics have accused his party, La France Insoumise, or LFI, of seeking to use the unrest to score points in the presidential campaign and of inciting violence.

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Rodan-Benzaquen says the LFI has “actively supported the mobilization. Activists circulate footage of clashes, party accounts amplify it and elected officials present themselves as the students’ defenders.” With an election next year, she said, “Mélenchon sees these mobilizations as a way to consolidate young voters and marginalize the moderate left. At a time of deep political, geopolitical and economic challenges, this is a very dangerous situation for France.”

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Video posted to social media shows the Seine-Saint Denis mayor, Bally Bagayoko of the LFI, joining in with students, smiling and high-fiving pupils after a trash can was set on fire in the street. And the president of the Île‑de‑France region told Radio Monte Carlo, “There is a call to action being issued by LFI today: ‘Trash your high school.’ It is being spread via TikTok challenges.”

In Madrid on Wednesday, Macron told reporters, “High schools are meant to be open and to share knowledge. They are not meant to be blockaded or to have trash cans set on fire.”

The Associated Press, Reuters contributed to this report.