Follow-up: French High School Protests Resume on a Much Smaller Scale as Students Return From Break

PARIS: French high school student protests resumed on Monday, November 2, on a much smaller scale than in previous weeks as pupils returned from a two-week break, Reuters reported. According to French media, youngsters tried to blockade only a few high schools in Paris, Marseille and Rennes.

Before the break, hundreds of France's more than 3,000 high schools had been blockaded. The protests began in the Paris suburbs in September and spread across France, broadening beyond education to focus on the cost of living, drawing in trade unionists and activists and sometimes turning violent.

Education Minister Edouard Geffray told radio station France Inter on Monday morning that, in terms of blockades or attempted blockades, the phenomenon was "very marginal" and involved "just a handful of units, a few individual schools." He said protests are allowed but preventing access to schools is illegal. Police officers were present, television footage showed, though not in full anti-riot gear.

Students want the renovation of aging schools, more teachers, more university places and an end to a university admissions system they see as socially unfair. Geffray offered last week to cap class sizes at 28, dedicate 4 billion euros (about $4.47 billion) to renovating schools, create 15,000 new places for students in higher education and introduce a new admission system by 2028. High school student representatives said the offers were not enough and that they would keep protesting.

The wave of so-called "Gen Z" protests has swept European countries including Germany, Italy, Belgium and Albania, driven by grievances including the cost of living, the poor state of schools and perceived corruption. Last month, the French protests degenerated into violent clashes with police and outright riots in several cities, with shops looted, in a test for President Emmanuel Macron's minority government.

Over the weekend, the French government estimated that about 320,000 people marched nationwide and 565 people were arrested, a third consecutive weekend of mass protests that stood in sharp contrast to Monday's scattered blockades.

Related: Youth Protests in France and Germany Turn Violent: 320,000 March in France, 565 Arrested

Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)

Photo: 巴黎Jules Ferry高中门口的学生抗议（2026年10月2日，资料图）。照片：Guallendra，公共领域，经Wikimedia Commons。

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