It would be tough to argue that the demands of France’s protesting high school students are not reasonable ones, worth taking to the streets for: investment in crumbling schools, replacing absent teachers, reducing class sizes and overstuffed timetables, and bridging the inequality gap between schools in different areas.
The protests across the country on Tuesday, which demonstrators dubbed l’acte III (Act 3), or la grande mobilisation, were billed as the most dramatic day of action yet, with more school blockades and a march through central Paris in the afternoon. More than 400 schools closed preventively, including my elder daughter’s, a combined collège (for 11- to 15-year-olds) and lycée.
At 11 she’s too young to be involved, and after her reports of fireworks, burning bins and smoke as she and her friends ran in through the gates one day last week, I must say I’m relieved – no matter how worthwhile the cause. It was business as usual on Friday (a few more parents picking up their children than would normally, though), while on Tuesday morning, with school closed, the gates were blocked with bins and about 50 lycéens (one dressed as Batman) were there, wielding their banners. The atmosphere was calm, with attention shifting to the big protest march through the city due later in the day.
While there have been some cases of violence from protesters, heavy-handed police methods have been severely criticised. In one incident, in Tours, a 16-year-old boy lost sight in his right eye, an injury the city’s prosecutor said was consistent with a rubber bullet. In a particularly dark turn on Monday, and in circumstances that are not yet entirely clear, a lycée student lost his hand at a demonstration in Lens, northern France. A police investigation is under way.
As the protests have grown in scope, the French prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has promised the government will listen and try to meet the main demands – but that’s unlikely to mean suddenly freeing up billions to invest in schools that have gone underfunded for years, as the videos posted online of rat-infested, flooded or crumbling classrooms testify.
The political debate surrounding the escalating social movement is angry and polarised: a foretaste of the how the country’s April 2027 presidential election is likely to play out. The high school movement comes at an already tense time, with France’s government once again trying to push through a budget full of spending cuts without a parliamentary majority.
Last year, to get the budget over the line, the government had to use special constitutional powers to bypass the need for a parliamentary vote. This year’s budget, due for a vote in November, includes pension and healthcare cuts aimed at helping to plug the seemingly bottomless budget deficit – and is likely to be just as problematic for the government.
The intensity of the protests has prompted a mudslinging match between two of the favourites for the first round of the presidential elections. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of France Unbowed, is vocally on the side of the protesters (many of whom will vote for his party when old enough) but rejects the narrative that his party stirred up the unrest. Meanwhile, Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Rally, is using the protests to call for an anti-riot law. She’s clearly not following the advice of the Socialist party leader, Olivier Faure, who during a presidential primary debate among leftwing candidates urged people not to fall into the classic rightwing trap of focusing on the violence while ignoring the cause of the protests.
Faure made reference to the proverb of the wise man pointing at the moon and the fool looking at his finger: “look at the moon, not the finger,” he said – and it’s a sensible message for all the wannabe presidents. Many of the lycéens protesting today will be voting for the first time next April.
Even if Le Pen is now looking at the finger, she certainly shouldn’t be written off for next year’s election; her message seems to be resonating with a large number of French citizens and she is the clear favourite for the first round of the presidential elections. We’ve been here before: if the polls are correct, it will be Le Pen’s third second-round run-off. The difference is that in 2022 and 2017 she was up against Emmanuel Macron – a centrist candidate who voters from across the spectrum could get behind to block her, even if many reported holding their nose at the ballot box.
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As things stand, that may be harder for many in 2027. Le Pen’s opposition is fragmented, with several potential candidates still in the running on the left and centre right – and because of that, Le Pen’s second-round adversary may prove easier for her to beat, to the benefit of absolutely no one.
Everything stayed quiet yesterday in my north-east Paris neighbourhood. But in the centre of the city, organisers say some 100,000 people turned out (the interior ministry estimated 56,000). Under a blazing early October sun, huge – and mainly calm – crowds gathered in Place de la République and marched to Place de la Nation to chant and wave placards. As the main crowd dispersed, some small groups clashed with police as the sun was setting.
For now, the movement’s momentum seems to be building, not receding. Some politicians are realising that, six months away from a fraught election, they should listen to their future voters.
