France braces for fresh protests as students to resume school blockades

A nationwide day of strikes and protests across the public and private sectors is planned for Thursday.

The Union Etudiante (Student Union), said Saturday that blockades of universities and high schools would take place on both Tuesday and Thursday.

But some high schools will be blockaded from Monday, when students return from a two-week holiday, said Pierre Sourzat, head of the "Lyceens!" group.

"We're calling for blockades... starting on Monday ... that's the principle when you go on strike, it's to cause disruption," he told RMC radio on Sunday.

High school pupils began blockades in mid-September.

President Emmanuel Macron has called for classes to resume in a calm manner, arguing that "young people have been heard".

"No, we're not all going back to class," Sourzat said, "[the president] hasn't heard us, he's given us almost nothing."

As students call for 'act three', can France's school protests keep momentum?

'Smoke and mirrors'

Hundreds of thousands of people, including high school and university students, took to the streets across France on Saturday for a third consecutive weekend of protests over soaring prices, inequality and poor conditions in schools.

The movement emerged in mid-September with high school students angry over overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings, which they blame on years of underinvestment.

Last Monday, the government announced a series of measures, including replacing the university admissions platform, known as Parcoursup, which is criticised for its lack of transparency, and providing loans for school renovations.

Sourzat said the proposed overhaul of Parcoursup failed to address the shortage of places in higher education. 

He also dismissed the government's plan to reduce class sizes as insufficient, noting that it would apply only to 10th-grade classes.

"We were asking for all year groups," he said, describing the government's proposals as "smoke and mirrors".

"There's a bit of polish on the surface, but once you scratch beneath it, there's nothing there."  High school pupils block the lycée Buffon in Paris on 2 October.

France sees third weekend of protests as youth-led rallies sweep Europe

Calls for action

France is the eurozone's second-largest economy but is struggling with mounting debt and the government has limited scope to appease student protesters through additional spending.

Several trade unions also say the government's proposals do not go far enough and are calling for a large turnout on Thursday.

"This time, we're close to concrete progress so that tomorrow can be better than today," Thomas Vacheron, a national official at the hardline CGT union told BFMTV.

The CGT wants an increase in the minimum wage, higher pay grades for civil servants and pay rises for all workers.

"The government must respond to the protests now. It's the one that holds the key," Vacheron said.

'Generational rage' drives young Europeans to fight to be heard

'Robust' security operation

Turnout at Saturday's protests was around 320,000, including 70,000 people in Paris, the Interior Ministry said, though organisers put the figure at half a million.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez had warned that Saturday was a "high risk" day and deployed 70,000 police and gendarmes nationwide.

In Paris, the only authorised march was outside the city centre.

Police arrested 779 people, the interior ministry said on Sunday, adding there had been "no major incidents".

The operation helped avert a repeat of the widespread looting and vandalism seen on 17 October when more than 1,300 people were arrested and an estimated €1 billion of damage caused to shops and public property..

"The arrangements put in place, robust and flexible, allowed authorised demonstrations to take place, guaranteeing freedom of expression while preventing the actions of those who sought to make the marches degenerate," Nunez wrote on X.

Prosecutors announced Sunday they had launched an attempted murder probe after a petrol bomb was thrown at security forces during the protest in Paris, leaving one officer with second-degree burns.

Several hundred rioters had attacked security forces with projectiles, including a Molotov cocktail, the prefecture said.

(with newswires)