Student unrest intensified across France on Friday as riot police confronted teenagers in several cities. About 400 high schools remained closed, while authorities said roughly 2,000 people had been arrested since the demonstrations began. As the disorder spread, the government increasingly accused the country’s hard left of stoking the unrest.
Tear gas clouded streets in Strasbourg, protesters launched fireworks at police lines in Marseille and garbage bins were set on fire in Rennes. Clashes were also reported in Paris, Reuters reported Friday. The violence represented a sharp escalation from the unrest reported by News Outlet on Thursday, when hundreds had already been arrested as school blockades and confrontations spread nationwide.
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told RTL radio on Friday that approximately 2,000 people, most of them teenagers, had been arrested since the protests began. He said parents should be required to pay for property damage caused by their children, according to Reuters.
“In the streets, the children are in danger,” Education Minister Édouard Geffray told BFM TV.
FRANCE-POLITICS-EDUCATION-DEMO A protesting student feeds a burnt barrier during a blockading action outside the secondary school Le Corbusier, in Aubervilliers, northern Paris on October 1, 2026. Since late September, students have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide. (Photo by LOU BENOIST / AFP via Getty Images) ( )
Euronews reported Friday that at least 65 school employees, including 40 principals, had been injured since the unrest began, along with approximately 170 students. More than 100 high schools sustained what Geffray called “severe damage.”
The demonstrations initially focused on overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, lengthy school days and deteriorating facilities. Students have blamed years of underinvestment for conditions in schools, even as the government presented its draft 2027 budget on Thursday. The proposal would increase education spending by 1.7% to 65.53 billion euros, excluding teacher pensions—an increase below inflation, according to Reuters.
As the protests have turned increasingly violent, however, they have also become a significant political battle.
French intelligence agencies told a government crisis meeting Thursday that politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed party, known as LFI, had initiated the protest movement, Reuters reported Friday.
Students clash with police during ongoing student protest action, in Lyon, central eastern France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Since late September, students have staged protests outside schools over grievances ranging from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year’s heatwaves. The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide. (Alex Martin AFP via Getty Images)
LFI lawmakers rejected the accusation, saying President Emmanuel Macron’s government was politicizing the demonstrations ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
Le Monde reported Friday that Geffray accused LFI of encouraging the initial demonstrations before saying the movement had been “taken hostage by ultra-left groups.” LFI leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon has denied responsibility for the violence.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told News Outlet on Thursday that the unrest began with legitimate complaints but had since developed into a much broader and more serious crisis.
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“The students’ grievances about missing teachers and deteriorating schools were real at first,” Rodan-Benzaquen said. “But dousing a principal in gasoline and attacking firefighters are acts of extreme violence. What makes this politically significant is the effort to turn frustration over schools into a much broader confrontation with the government.”
Protesters burned trash cans and plastic containers near a campus in the Paris suburb of Pantin, where students blocked the gates outside Berthelot High School. Riot police used tear gas, while protesters threw firecrackers in return on Oct 2, 2026. (Reuters)
The demonstrations are rapidly emerging as a major issue in the campaign to replace Macron next May, with Mélenchon condemning the government’s response as repressive. Rodan-Benzaquen said LFI had “actively supported the mobilization,” arguing that “activists circulate footage of clashes, party accounts amplify it and elected officials present themselves as the students’ defenders.”
“With an election next year,” she said, “Mélenchon sees these mobilizations as a way to consolidate young voters and marginalize the moderate left. At a time of deep political, geopolitical and economic challenges, this is a very dangerous situation for France.”
Marine Le Pen likewise accused LFI of directly contributing to the unrest. “This is no longer about high school student protests. It is about riots organized by professionals and overseen by deputies from La France Insoumise,” Le Pen wrote in a translated post on X. “We must pass a new anti-rioters law so that participation in a riot is a clearly identified offense.”
French high school students gather outside the Lycee Voltaire high school as part of nationwide protests to demand the hiring of substitute teachers, increased resources and better learning conditions, in Paris, as more than 400 schools remain closed following days of student protests that have escalated into violence in some places, France, October 2, 2026. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)
The government has deployed specialized riot police and mobile gendarmes as authorities work to bring the unrest under control, Le Monde reported.
The government’s response is also drawing scrutiny. Students and rights groups have accused police of excessive force against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal weapons. Amnesty International warned against excessive force, while France’s Interior Ministry said Friday that three investigations into alleged police violence had been opened, according to Reuters.
The unrest may also be beginning to spread beyond France. Students in Liège, Belgium, began demonstrating Thursday, and high schools there were closed Friday.
Masked protesters install a barricade amid clashes with police during a protest by high school students near the Lycee Berthelot high school in Aubervilliers near Paris as part of nationwide protests to demand the hiring of substitute teachers, increased resources and better learning conditions, as more than 400 schools remain closed following days of student protests that have escalated into violence in some places, France, October 2, 2026. The slogan on the placard reads “Same studies, but not the same rights”. (Sarah Meyssonnier/Reuters)
News Outlet reached out to the French government, the Education Ministry, the Interior Ministry and La France Insoumise for comment but did not receive responses in time for publication.
Tyler Speicher and Reuters contributed to this story.
