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France explodes again as students riot over education
Confirmed
In Short: Internazionale (Italy) and Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) reported that riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday, with unions calling for teachers to strike.
Up to 450,000 demonstrators have taken to the streets across France to protest the country's school system, according to Dagens.com and Dagens. The protests, which began in mid-September 2026, have spread to over 40 cities, affecting 891 schools and leading to the closure or disruption of hundreds of schools.
According to FactCrescendo, French high school and university students are protesting due to severe under-investment in the public education system, resulting in overcrowded classrooms, chronic teacher shortages, and deteriorating school buildings. Fox News reported that violent scenes have emerged from the protests, with more than half of the country's high schools forced to close.
Internazionale (Italy) and Arabnews (Saudi Arabia) reported that riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday, with unions calling for teachers to strike. The protests have escalated rapidly, with clashes between students and riot police, leading to intense confrontations.
BBC (United Kingdom) reported that the protests have spread from high school pupils to their parents, university students, and unions. The BBC also noted that the protests have harmed more than 200 students and 700 police officers, and prompted more than 6,600 arrests.
According to Connectedtoindia, France witnessed one of its biggest days of protests on Tuesday as thousands of students, joined by parents and teachers, took to the streets across the country over a shortage of teachers and staff, overcrowded classrooms, and deteriorating school buildings.
The French interior ministry said 6,100 people have been taken into custody since the protests began in September, while at least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been injured in clashes, according to Fox News. The education ministry reported that classes were totally or partially suspended Tuesday at 891 schools.
Pope Leo XIV, during his visit to France, warned about the risks of artificial intelligence and rapid technological advancements, cautioning that they could undermine human dignity. He also criticized profit-driven scientific ventures and nuclear deterrence, as reported by Al Jazeera.
The protests have also heightened pressure on the French government, which is facing financial problems and the release of its proposed cost-cutting budget for 2027. The BBC reported that authorities have suspended the use of stun grenades for policing student protests after a 15-year-old's hand was blown off earlier this week.
Despite the disagreements over the use of force and the extent of the protests, all outlets agree that the protests have escalated rapidly, affecting hundreds of schools and leading to violent clashes between students and riot police.
The protests have also raised questions about the government's response and the underlying issues in the education system, with students rejecting the government's explanation and demanding better learning conditions.
Intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI).
Background
Intelligence agencies told a crisis meeting on Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI).
What's confirmed
- Up to 450,000 demonstrators have taken to the streets all over France to protest its school system.
- Classes were totally or partially suspended Tuesday at 891 schools, according to the Education Ministry.
- Riot police clashed with high school students across France on Friday and unions called for teachers to strike as President Emmanuel Macron’s government battled to contain increasingly violent protests over classroom conditions and funding.
- “Violence will not keep our students from their fundamental right to an education,” he said on X.
What's still developing
- This video shows the riots that erupted after a fatal shooting involving the Kurdish community in Paris in December 2022.
- The users who share the video claim that it shows the recent violence in France associated with the ongoing student protests.
- The students rejected the explanation, saying the increment (1.7%) is below inflation rate of (3.4%); Therefore, protest.
- It was the year of the Battle of Hastings, at the start of the Norman Conquest, an epic invasion from France, when William the Conqueror crossed the English Channel with an army of Norman soldiers of Viking descent and killed England's Anglo-Saxon King Harold II with an arrow through his eye.
- The oldest depiction of 1066's events is on a medieval tapestry sewn in England but whisked away to France in the late 11th century, where it's been ever since.
- Students have blocked the entrances to hundreds of high schools for 15- to 17-year-olds since late September, complaining of missing teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.
- Authorities have reported many dozens of injuries, including from hurled objects but also, in some suspected cases, from police riot-control projectiles.
- Published 25 Sept 2026, 16:44 UTC Updated 25 Sept 2026, 17:01 UTC Technology and Science · 25 September, 2026 · 2 min read Pope Leo XIV opened a France visit, warning AI could create a 'paradise of machines'.
- PARIS: The student protest movement that has spread across France is now “out of control,” the Paris police chief said on Saturday, urging demonstrators to return to peaceful action and warning that authorities would respond firmly to violence and vandalism.
- Scientific progress should not turn “into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death”, the pope said, a few months after France passed a landmark bill legalising assisted dying.
- Thousands of worshippers cheered Leo on Friday as he stepped up to pray and called those gathered at a stadium near Paris the “saints of France”.
- Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said he had requested the pause until the facts of Monday's incident in Lens had been "clarified", with conflicting accounts offered by protesters and officials.