France sends 70,000 officers to guard 400,000 student marchers

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets across France on Saturday to demand better schools and fairer policing, marking a major escalation in a youth-led social crisis. The government estimated at least 400,000 people participated in the nationwide marches, a figure trade unions contested by claiming the actual turnout was double that amount.

In Paris, authorities reported that at least 110,000 marchers moved along the eastern edge of the city. Participants supported high school students’ calls for more teachers and building repairs, while also criticizing the high cost of living and what they described as heavy-handed police tactics. The atmosphere remained largely relaxed for much of the afternoon, with brass bands playing and families walking together.

Tensions rose at the end of the Paris route at Porte de Vincennes. Groups of masked men in black, who did not appear to be part of the peaceful crowd, threw glass bottles and stones at officers. Police responded with teargas, water cannon, and stun grenades. A bin was set on fire, and fireworks were launched toward law enforcement. Similar clashes occurred in Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Nantes, and Toulouse, where teargas was used to keep protesters away from city centers. In Marseille, bin fires were lit during the confrontations.

The interior ministry deployed more than 70,000 police officers to manage the events. Shops boarded up their windows, and many museums closed their doors to the public. Security forces acted with heightened caution after a previous Saturday saw one of the most violent days of unrest in years. That earlier incident resulted in burned public buildings, hundreds of destroyed shops, and at least 2,700 arrests.

Anger at the demonstrations was directed at President Emmanuel Macron, who faces a political challenge in his final months in office. Critics pointed to his ban on non-union demonstrations deemed illegitimate and his policy of keeping protesters away from city centers. Nadège, a 43-year-old communications worker who was teargassed the previous weekend, said she returned to the streets to defend the legal right to protest. A 21-year-old student from a blockaded Paris science faculty described the situation as an authoritarian regime trying to stop the democratic right to demonstrate.

The crisis began in mid-September when students aged 15 to 18 protested staff shortages, crumbling buildings, and overcrowded classrooms. The movement has since grown to include trade unions, teachers, and parents. Police investigations are underway after some children and protesters were injured by explosive weaponry. Some demonstrators wore yellow vests, a reference to the 2018 and 2019 gilets jaunes protests.

Jérôme Rodrigues, a key figure from the 2018 movement, said the government was afraid and pushing demonstrators to the edge of the city. He predicted demonstrations would continue each weekend. In Orléans, thousands marched against a congress held by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally party. The crowd shouted slogans calling for Macron to resign and for Le Pen to be put in prison. Laurent Nunez, the interior minister, stated that 135 people had been arrested across France. Officials confiscated various items, including metal balls, lead pellets, fireworks, slingshots, steel balls, improvised weapons, a katana sword, and airsoft guns.