A decisive “act 5” of the mobilization for high school students, a few days of the All Saints’ Day school holidays and the call to demonstrate on Saturday. At the end of a fourth day of mobilization on Thursday, the student and professional union called for new rallies and a strike on Tuesday, October 13, to defend the public education service. Calls to continue the movement were also relayed by high school representatives, despite the government's announcement of 3,000 replacement teachers assigned to establishments.
To calm anger, the ministers of National Education and Higher Education must again receive the organizations on Monday, in particular in order to work on the transparency of Parcoursup, the deletion of which is requested by high school students. Franceinfo summarizes what to expect for Tuesday.
New events planned
“As long as we do not have 10 billion on the table, we will continue to mobilize, said Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the Student Union, on Thursday. I call on everyone to join the mobilizations even more massively (...) and the demonstrations from this Tuesday in a major demonstration throughout the territory.”
In Paris, the Student Union Federation (FSE) called on Saturday on X to march from 2 p.m. between city hall and Matignon, residence of the Prime Minister. In the capital, another demonstration, Place d'Italie, was announced on Sunday by Unef.
Demonstrations are also announced in other cities in France. In Rennes, a gathering is planned for 1 p.m. on the Charles-de-Gaulle esplanade. In Toulouse, a demonstration is due to start at 2 p.m. from the Arena. In Poitiers, the mobilization will begin at the same time from the Pont Neuf. Blockades of high schools, still in progress on Monday, must also continue.
A call for strike launched beyond teaching professions
“We are calling on all National Education and higher education staff to go on strike on Tuesday,” Caroline Cheuvé, general secretary of the Unitary Trade Union Federation (FSU), said on Thursday. In a press release, the trade union organizations call for mobilization, in particular to cancel the "job cuts planned for the 2027 budget", increase salaries "without compensation" or even create a status for AESH, who support students with disabilities. The inter-union of Higher Education Research denounces in another press release "the reductions in staffing" having "direct consequences" on their working conditions, between "understaffing" and "work overload".
This call for a strike goes beyond the teaching professions. “We will be there to protect this mobilization which is of general interest,” Sophie Binet, general secretary of the CGT, declared Monday on LCI. “We call for strikes and demonstrations (...) As long as the government does not answer the questions that are asked, the mobilization will remain strong and will continue to develop.”
The organization Solidaires Finances publique also invites agents to join high school students in striking, according to a press release. On the SNCF side, a call for a strike was launched by Sud Rail. “The mobilization of youth must find extensions in the world of work,” writes the union.
The medical internship competition under threat
The continued mobilization worries the more than 11,000 medical students. The written tests for the boarding school competition, which largely determine their future specialty, must take place over four days starting on Monday. This competition being national, any disruption in one of the 37 faculties where the exam takes place may result in a general cancellation of it. The president of the National Association of Medical Students of France, Thibault Patey, called on Friday for “student solidarity”. While affirming to support the “demands of the student mobilizations”, he believes that a blocking of these exams “would only have an impact on the students” and would cause “great distress”
“I don’t know who will be irresponsible enough to block the boarding school competition,” Philippe Baptiste, Minister of Higher Education, reacted on franceinfo on Friday. “We will do everything to ensure that it happens in good conditions,” he assured. In the event of a temporary interruption, there are only two emergency days, according to Isabelle Laffont, dean of the faculties of medicine.
An uncertain scale of mobilization
The figures for the mobilization on Tuesday will be watched closely by the different parties. More than 130,000 demonstrators were counted in France by the CGT on Thursday for "act 4" of the mobilization. The Ministry of the Interior, for its part, counted 71,500 people in the streets, including 24,500 in Paris. Two days earlier, the demonstrations had brought together between 266,000 and 450,000 people across France. These figures, although they show a decline, do not mark the end of the movement, assure the unions. “It’s a historic mobilization,” Manon Moret of Unef welcomed Thursday.
According to her, the government remains "completely incapable of responding to the demands of young people." The executive communicated on Friday about a “clear deceleration” in blockages and gatherings. According to the Ministry of Education, “more than 96% of high schools” were open Friday morning.
