French authorities closed roughly 400 high schools and police made nearly 2,000 arrests amid widespread urban violence and blockades spanning Paris, Lyon, Marseille, Nantes, and Rouen. The unrest, which intensified significantly on Thursday, involves student-led protests over education funding, the Parcoursup university admissions platform, and other grievances, drawing sharp political condemnation and escalating street clashes.
Nationwide Blockades Force Mass Closures and Remote Learning
The mobilization escalated rapidly from mid-week, culminating in roughly 900 separate actions in front of secondary schools across every French department, according to official figures reported by the source. Out of approximately 3,700 high schools nationwide, 1,027 institutions felt the impact of the movement, with 222 facing outright physical blockades. Matignon stated that approximately 400 schools were shut down by authorities for Friday, forcing students to pivot to remote learning in major urban centers like Marseille. University students also joined the mobilization, locking down around 30 campuses.
Security forces deployed heavily outside shuttered facilities. In Rennes, teenagers gathered outside the public Jean Macé high school on Friday morning, some wearing black clothing and balaclavas, while lines of police officers monitored the perimeter. Lola, a 16-year-old student at the scene who declined to give her full name, described the success of the closure to the source while denouncing the physical confrontations. “For us, we won, we have our school closed this morning,” she said, before criticizing police tactics. “It enrages us even more; the police have no right to hit us, to tear-gas us.” She identified the core grievances of the demonstrators as understaffing, funding shortages, the abolition of Parcoursup, and overly heavy daily timetables.
Government Condemns Ultra-Left Infiltration as Police Casualties Mount
The confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement left a heavy toll. Authorities reported that nearly 2,000 individuals were taken into police custody during Thursday’s flashpoints. Interior Ministry figures cited by the source noted that over 300 police officers and gendarmes sustained injuries, prompting Laurent Nuñez to condemn the unrest as “unbridled violence.” Education Ministry records show that 170 students and 65 national education personnel also suffered injuries since the unrest began.
Matignon’s services publicly blamed La France Insoumise (LFI) for orchestrating the disruptions, accusing the left-wing political party and its “ultra-left proxies” of orchestrating a deliberate strategy of chaos. Education Minister Édouard Geffray echoed those accusations, stating that the student movement had been “taken hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups.” Geffray characterized the situation as “clearly an enterprise of attack and destruction of the public service of Education,” emphasizing that the primary mandate remains student safety. In response to the government’s claims, LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard rejected the allegations, accusing Matignon of “sinking into conspiracy theories.”
Preemptive Bans and Emergency Concessions Ahead of National Marches
With just seven months remaining before the presidential election, the political climate is highly volatile. Prefects across the country issued emergency administrative orders on Thursday evening banning all demonstrations outside closed high schools for Friday. In Paris, Police Prefect Patrice Faure enforced targeted bans around 13 specific closed institutions.
Attempting to de-escalate the crisis, the government announced it would scrap proposed registration fees for BTS (advanced technician certificates) and preparatory classes—a controversial measure that had just been introduced earlier that morning within the 2027 draft budget and heavily criticized by leftist parties and education unions. Education Minister Geffray scheduled emergency meetings for Friday with teachers’ unions, parent associations, the Union Syndicale Lycéenne, and representatives from the National Council for School Life (CNVL). Geffray stated via social media that his goal is to translate the discussions into “concrete progress in the service of students, staff, and the School.” Despite these concessions, organizing bodies have called for the movement to continue ahead of a large national demonstration planned for the following Tuesday.
