More than half a million people hit the streets on October 17 , as protests swept across the country. Police arrested or detained more than 6,000 people, including hundreds of minors. France is in turmoil. As the administration greeted the protesters with a large deployment of riot police, peaceful demonstrations were engulfed by violence in many places. Arsonists set fire to the Lyon tourist office and burnt down the Limoges City Hall, a historic municipal building. Protesters stormed the townhall in Marseille and attacked the prefect’s residence in Bordeaux. In Paris’s Place de la Republique, protesting youth who clashed with the police torched vehicles and looted shops. Luxury retailers such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior and Galeries Lafayette suffered millions of dollars in losses as their stores were ransacked.
With the police outnumbered and unable to protect public and private property, several cities resorted to full or partial curfews. In a televised address to the nation, President Emmanuel Macron took a hard stance on the protests and rioting, stating: “Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it. The protesters, however, have refused to back down. ‘Four riot police for one student/One Professor for thirty-five’ read one placard, a reference to the teacher shortage and over-sized classrooms in French schools. The teacher crisis in France has been in the making for a long time. A combination of poor pay, little to no prospects for growth, and tough working conditions has seen a steady stream of teachers moving out of the profession altogether. Adding to the students’ frustration over the paucity of teachers were the successive heat waves in France this year, which exposed the rundown school buildings as totally unsuitable for the vagaries of climate change. Hundreds of schools were forced to stay closed on the hottest days and critical school-leaving exams had to be postponed. And yet, the Macron administration has been slow to act when it comes to investing in renovation of this infrastructure. Given that the crisis is more acute in public schools, there is also a growing perception that Mr.
They have accused La France Insoumise, or LFI (France Unbowed), the leftwing political party launched by veteran politician Jean-Luc Melenchon (75), of inciting the protests with the aim of extracting political mileage ahead of the presidential elections in April 2027. They issued a nationwide call to hit the streets again on Saturday, October 24. At the same time, the government, instead of replacing the exiting staff, has been happy to shut down the vacancies, with more than 4,000 teaching positions closed in 2026 alone. The October 17 mobilisation has made it clear that a movement initiated by high schoolers has managed to forge alliances with adults across social sections. Macron since he came to power in 2017.
Because they are themselves products of expensive private schools, macron and his ministers are clueless about the crisis in France’s education system.
Government officials have blamed the unrest on “seditionists from far-left fringe groups”. The Macron administration, taken by surprise on October 17, responded by deploying around 70,000 police across the country, with the Interior Minister Laurent Nunez making it clear that the government would be “extremely” firm and not tolerate anything. What has been described as a “cost of living” crisis, a moniker typically associated with rising fuel costs, unaffordable rents, housing crisis, and increasing precarity of the working classes, is a direct outcome of neoliberal policy choices made by Mr.
