France readied on Tuesday (October 13, 2026) for fresh nationwide demonstrations supporting students who have been protesting poor classroom conditions for weeks, with authorities and participants wary of further violence.
French authorities had been hoping that the student protest movement that started in late September was starting to ease, ahead of half-term holidays. The protests have seen students pile up dumpsters and other obstacles to block access to high schools, with clashes occasionally breaking out with police. Its tally did not include the shooting, which police were treating as a separate case.
In an incident seemingly unrelated to the protests, police arrested a 14-year-old on Monday near Marseille after a middle school headmaster and a teacher were shot with a hunting rifle, wounding both. The education ministry said eight members of teaching staff were injured on Monday (October 12, 2026), mostly in the Paris region and cities of Bordeaux and Lyon, in relation to the protests.
On Monday (October 12, 2026), only 130 of France’s 3,700 lycees were closed, according to the education ministry, though it stated that, while “the number of school closures is falling… the violence is intensifying”. “Students aren’t being heard enough… not their proposals to authorities and elected officials,” a 19-year-old graphic design student in Paris, Leo, said. “It’s shameful to block students who really want to study, by a movement they aren’t part of,” said Clara Juillet, a university student in the city of Tours who has been unable to attend lessons for a week because of the protests.
Earlier reporting noted: France braces for fresh student demonstrations as Macron calls for ‘respect’ Student protests gripping France for three weeks rumbled on Monday (October 12, 2026), though authorities hoped they were starting to ease ahead of half-term holidays — even as the country braced for fresh nationwide demonstrations. Earlier reporting noted: In an incident seemingly unrelated to the protests, police arrested a 14-year-old on Monday (October 12, 2026) near Marseille after a middle school headmaster and a teacher were shot with a hunting rifle, wounding both. Earlier reporting noted: Students have blocked entrances to hundreds of lycees — high schools for children 15 to 18 — since late September to rail against poor classroom conditions, with squads of riot police deployed and occasionally violent clashes erupting.
He added that the protesters — many of whom were minors — were “disturbed by the level of repression never before seen for a student movement”.
