French student protests intensify, with more than 100 schools closed across the country and clashes between police and citizens breaking out

Student protests have recently broken out across France. Demonstrators are dissatisfied with government spending cuts that have led to staff shortages and dilapidated school buildings. The methods of protest have become increasingly fierce. Students in more and more cities have begun burning trash cans and setting up roadblocks outside schools, and high school and college students have also joined in the violence.

According to comprehensive media reports, French Education Minister Edouard Geffray said in an interview with France 2 that as far as he knows, more than 400 schools and other educational institutions will be closed.

Protests over teacher shortages and dilapidated school buildings broke out in the Paris region last month but became increasingly violent as they spread across the country, leaving dozens injured and police arresting hundreds. Officials said student protesters set fire to at least two high schools, while at a third school in the southern city of Marseille, teachers were doused with gasoline. In Strasbourg in the east, at least one car was burned; in Toulouse in the southwest, riot police clashed with young people.

Now college students have joined the protest movement, blocking about 30 university campuses across the country. Sources from the security department said that there were about 900 blockades or related incidents across the country on the 1st, and more than 160 schools were closed, including in cities such as Paris and Marseille. In neighboring Belgium, protests and vandalism also occurred at a handful of schools in the eastern city of Liege, police said.

Regarding the cause and mobilization of the protests, sources close to French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu pointed out that the intelligence unit stated at the crisis management meeting that the protests were initiated by far-left politicians, including members of the far-left political party "La France Insoumise". The government and far-right politician Marine Le Pen have also accused the far-left France Indie party of instigating the protests.

In this regard, French MP Louis Boyard denied this statement in an interview with French television. Jean-Luc Melenchon, the candidate of the Integrated French Party for the 2027 presidential election, said on September 30 that his party "calls for non-violent methods of struggle."