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Hundreds of thousands of students and their allies flooded the streets of France's major cities on Tuesday, blocking school entrances and staging marches in what organisers described as the third act of a protest movement that has steadily gained momentum since mid-September. The interior ministry put the total turnout at roughly 250,000 people, while protest organisers insisted the true figure was nearly double that estimate.
The demonstrations represent the latest escalation in a wave of discontent that began when high schoolers started blockading hundreds of schools across the country. Their grievances centre on what they describe as chronic understaffing, punishing class schedules, and ageing school buildings that are poorly equipped to cope with the increasingly severe summer heatwaves that have become a recurring feature of French life.
The movement has drawn a forceful response from authorities. Video footage that has circulated widely on social media appears to show a 14-year-old boy being confronted by three police officers, one of whom fired a tear gas grenade directly into his face at close range. The blast reportedly knocked out most of the teenager's teeth and fractured his jaw.
Additional incidents have fuelled public outrage. In the northern town of Lens, a 15-year-old boy lost his hand up to the elbow after what was described as a sting-ball grenade detonated. In Tours, a 16-year-old suffered the loss of his right eye, with the local prosecutor stating that a projectile fired by riot police was the likely cause. These cases have become flashpoints in the broader debate over the proportionality of the state's response to student protests.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told lawmakers on Tuesday that 215 students and 85 teaching staff had been wounded during the protests, along with 715 police officers. More than 5,000 people have been arrested since the movement began, the overwhelming majority of them minors. The scale of the arrests has raised concerns among civil liberties advocates about the treatment of young demonstrators within the justice system.
In a significant development, several of France's trade unions threw their weight behind the students on Tuesday. Members of the left-wing Confédération Générale du Travail formed a human chain between riot police and high schoolers blockading the Lycée Hélène Boucher on the eastern outskirts of Paris. The union presence was intended to shield young protesters from potential police violence, fulfilling a pledge made in the days leading up to the demonstrations.
At the Lycée Sophie Germain in Paris's Marais district, students sealed off one end of a narrow street using upturned rubbish bins, steel railings, and chain-link fencing. The atmosphere at the barricade was notably different from other protest sites, with no police officers visible. Students gathered at the school's front doors, holding cardboard signs aloft, while a portable speaker circulated through the crowd and the group sang, rapped, and danced together.
Between musical performances, the students chanted slogans with roots in earlier French protest movements, including "Siamo tutti antifascisti" and "Aux armes," as well as a vulgar denunciation of the far-right National Front. Bachir, a 17-year-old student, explained that organisers had reached an understanding with authorities, who reportedly agreed to stand down as long as the demonstration remained peaceful and free of fires or firework-launchers.
The truce appeared fragile, however. At one point, a police van advanced up the main avenue and stopped in front of the chain-link barricade, prompting several apparent organisers to hurry toward it for a discussion. The encounter underscored the tense balance that has characterised the movement, which has expanded despite the government's attempts to restore order through force.
The protests have also become entangled in national politics, with the unrest fuelling clashes between rival political camps ahead of the 2027 presidential election. The involvement of trade unions and the scale of the injuries sustained by young people have given the movement a broader resonance, transforming it from a narrow dispute over school conditions into a wider referendum on state authority and public investment.
With the prime minister's casualty figures now public and thousands of minors processed through the justice system, the movement shows little sign of abating. Students have already signalled their intention to continue blockading schools and organising demonstrations, setting the stage for further confrontations with security forces in the weeks ahead. For a government already navigating a volatile political landscape, the prospect of sustained youth unrest presents a formidable challenge.
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