France Deploys 70,000 Police as Students and Workers March Again Over Schools and Prices

France Deploys 70,000 Police as Students and Workers March Again Over Schools and Prices

Smaller Paris Crowd Marches as Lyon Police Fire Tear Gas

Thousands of students and workers marched in Paris and other French cities on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs. Several thousand gathered at Porte d'Italie in southern Paris early in the afternoon, a smaller crowd than a week earlier, with trade unions leading the procession and protesters in raincoats carrying flags and handmade placards. Police used tear gas in Lyon, where the rally had been banned, on Saturday morning. In Clermont-Ferrand, officers used tear gas and stun grenades to push back demonstrators trying to reach the city center.

70,000 Officers Deployed as Lyon, Nice and Montpellier Ban Rallies

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said up to 70,000 officers would be deployed nationwide to prevent a repeat of looting, burned cars and attacks on public buildings. In Paris, authorities restricted the main march to the city's southeastern edge, keeping it away from the center; the authorized route ran from Porte d'Italie to Porte de Vincennes, after the unions' requested Bastille-to-Nation route was cancelled. Marches were scheduled in Paris and Marseille, but rallies in Lyon, Nice and Montpellier were banned. An AFP reporter saw officers disperse about 150 people near central Lyon after the group briefly tried to block a road.

From One Short-Staffed High School to a National Movement

What began last month as a protest over staff shortages at one high school southeast of Paris has grown into a national movement. Students demanding better schools and workers seeking higher wages and pensions have carried anger over living standards into the final months of President Emmanuel Macron's presidency. Macron met high school representatives on Friday. They said he had promised to overhaul university admissions, but called for protests to continue until concrete measures are announced.

Students Demand 250,000 University Places and 200 Euros More a Month

Student groups want 250,000 more places in higher education and an end to selection through Parcoursup, the national admissions system. Their joint 10-point plan also calls for more teachers and repairs to schools and universities. Public middle and high schools lost 15.4 million teaching hours in the 2024-25 school year because absent teachers were not replaced, according to Education Ministry figures, amounting to 7.5 percent of scheduled teaching time. They are also seeking help with everyday costs: an extra 200 euros a month in student grants and a rent freeze in public student housing.

Last Week's Half-Million March Ended in Looting, Arson and Mass Arrests

The October 17 day of action is the backdrop. The interior ministry put nationwide turnout at 550,000 across 110 demonstrations, including 110,000 in Paris; the CGT union estimated 800,000. Most marched peacefully, but masked groups clashed with police, looted businesses and set fires: shops stripped bare, vehicles and buildings burned, the tourist office in Lyon set alight, and the 143-year-old city hall of Limoges partly destroyed by arson. Early counts spoke of about 400 arrests and 60 injured officers; the toll was later revised to around 1,800 detained nationwide, including a record 855 in Paris, with more than 500 officers injured. Final weekend figures reached 2,397 to 2,400 arrests, with 997 police officers and gendarmes injured, seven of them seriously. One protester died of cardiac arrest during the Paris demonstrations. In Saint-Etienne a protester lost a hand in a grenade incident, and a student suffered a similar injury in Lens earlier in the month; Human Rights Watch reported a 15-year-old lost a hand to a police stun grenade and a 14-year-old suffered a shattered jaw from a tear gas canister fired at close range.

Macron: No Room for Violence, Looters Must Pay

Macron wrote on X that there is no room for violence in the Republic, warning that those who smashed prefectures and businesses and looted town halls will be prosecuted and punished. In a televised address he added that those who destroyed must pay and those who looted must reimburse, pledging judicial proceedings. France suspended the use of stun grenades during the student demonstrations, but Nunez said they could be used on Saturday. Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said more than 2,330 people were taken into custody over the weekend, 70 percent of them adults, with some 350 arrested in Paris on Sunday and overnight. Nunez conceded police had lost control at points during the October 17 unrest.

Who Is Hit: Pupils Missing Lessons, Workers Running on Empty

The direct victims are public-school pupils missing lessons and wage earners squeezed by prices. In the central town of Gueret, around 300 people demonstrated, a quarter of them high school students; Franck, a civil servant in his forties, said prices rise while wages do not, leaving nothing at month's end. Lola, a 19-year-old protester in Paris, said the cost of living is too harsh, fuel too costly, and high school pupils are attacked across the country merely for asking for teachers and decent learning conditions. Shopkeepers are hit too: commercial districts in Paris, Lille and Marseille saw extensive looting, with a McDonald's set on fire in Lille and an Apple store ransacked.

What Next: Admissions Reform Pledge Against Continued Marches

The near-term test is whether Macron's pledge to overhaul Parcoursup turns into action on the students' demands: funded places, permanent teachers and the 1.5-billion-euro school repair plan. Student groups and unions say marches continue until concrete measures appear; the government answers with continued mass deployments and targeted bans. If another weekend brings injuries to minors or arson of public buildings, the cycle of protest and crackdown is likely to deepen rather than ease.