What’s behind French student protests that turned violent?

Protests over crowded classrooms, teacher shortages and lengthy school days have spread across France, with police detaining more than 400 people, many of them minors, on Tuesday.

The movement began at high schools in the Paris area last week before expanding nationwide. Some school blockades turned violent as protesters burned rubbish bins and hurled bottles at officers, who responded with batons and tear gas. Authorities said 48 law enforcement officers were injured.

The unrest coincided with a public sector strike over the government’s budget plans, adding to political tensions and a headache for Emmanuel Macron ahead of next year’s presidential election. Here is what we know.

What happened during the protests?

The French education ministry says protests have affected about 400 of France’s 3,700 lycees (high schools).

Protests began in Paris last week, where teenagers have been blockading their schools for several days. This week, demonstrations and blockades have spread around the country. On Tuesday, protesters set fire to rubbish bins outside a high school in Lille, northern France, and threw bottles, paving stones and other projectiles at police.

About 80 students gathered outside the Lamartine school in Paris, brandishing slogans complaining of getting “More hours of lessons than sleep”.

At the Lycee Brequigny in the northwestern city of Rennes, Brittany’s largest high school, about 100 students threw projectiles at the building, an AFP video journalist reported.

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told BFM TV that 440 people had been detained nationwide, although the tally was not final. About two-thirds were subsequently placed in police custody, he said.

Nunez condemned protesters who arrived with their faces covered and carrying projectiles, saying there was no justification for seeking confrontations with officers. He also said there had been seven incidents in which hydrochloric acid was thrown at police. AFP reported that police carrying riot shields struck students with batons when a crowd formed in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis.

Vincent Latour, professor of British studies at Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, told Al Jazeera the movement was expanding. “The number of secondary schools involved has doubled over the last couple of days,” he said.

Why are students protesting?

The protests are over conditions in France’s lycees, where students generally spend their final three years of secondary education, between the ages of 15 and 18.

Their complaints include large class sizes, absent teachers, inadequate school buildings and exhausting schedules. Outside the Lamartine lycee in Paris, students held placards protesting against their timetables, the UK’s Guardian newspaper reported. One read: “8am-6pm. More hours of lessons than sleep.”

Latour said the grievances had been building since heatwaves in June exposed problems with school buildings. “There has been discontent since successive heatwaves in June this year, which revealed the poor state of schools, with poor insulation and no air conditioning,” he said.

“The current wave is happening against a background of difficult conditions: missing teachers, teachers who are absent and not replaced, continued difficult material conditions, and discontent over working conditions and pay.”

In Saint-Denis, north of Paris, Mayor Bally Bagayoko joined hundreds of students outside the Paul-Eluard lycee. He described their protest as “completely legitimate” and said poorer areas received fewer resources than wealthier ones.

Latour said some students also questioned the government’s priorities, pointing to its emphasis on restrictions such as the ban on wearing the abaya in state schools.

“Some students argue they should concentrate on what matters: offering pupils and students decent learning conditions,” he said.

How are the protests linked to the strikes?

The school protests coincided with a nationwide public-sector strike against the government’s proposed budget, which includes 54 billion euros ($61.3bn) of funding cuts and savings.

Caroline Cheve, secretary-general of the FSU education union federation, said pupils and teachers essentially shared the same frustrations.

“They’re in overcrowded classrooms. Sometimes they don’t have enough teachers because of staffing shortages. They see the same reality as we do, and they’re angry,” she said.

The government also proposes freezing state employees’ base salaries in 2027 to save about 2 billion euros ($2.27bn). Unions say this would be the fourth consecutive annual freeze.

Teachers, firefighters and other public sector workers therefore joined Tuesday’s action by students. The education ministry said just over 11 percent of teachers and other school staff participated. Ryad Rani, president of the Union Syndicale Lyceenne, a high school students’ union, called for nationwide school blockades alongside the public sector strike, while urging protesters to “remain peaceful”.

He said students were protesting against a “general lack of resources”, classes containing as many as 32 to 35 pupils, and shortages of teachers and other staff.

Rani criticised instructions from the interior and education ministries telling police to maintain order outside schools with a proportionate use of force.

“We’re talking about pupils of 15-18 years old and the government’s only response is automatic and institutionalised repression. It’s unacceptable,” he told BFM TV.

What has been the political response?

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu condemned violence outside schools and accused political opponents of encouraging an escalation. “Fireworks, fires, violence near high schools: nothing justifies endangering students, staff or police,” he wrote on X.

Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of the left-wing France Unbowed party, accused the government of ordering a crackdown on high school students. “This brutality is irresponsible and has a clear racist undertone. Hands off our youth,” he wrote, calling on elected officials and party activists to intervene.

Lecornu called Melenchon’s intervention an “irresponsible escalation” and rejected the accusation of racism as “an insult”.

“Exploiting their anger for partisan purposes is wrong,” he wrote.

The dispute comes as Lecornu seeks support for the 2027 budget in a divided parliament, while parties position themselves ahead of the presidential election next spring.

Latour said the school protests were unfolding amid wider anger over public services, high fuel prices and pressure on household finances. “The political climate is rather explosive because of the upcoming presidential election,” he said.

He suggested left-wing parties could seek to bring different protest movements together, including those involving school pupils.

Latour also said unrest could spread to universities, where funding pressures had intensified. “There is potential for a series of protests in French universities, given the underfunding of French universities over the past few years,” he said.

“There was a deterioration over the last year, which seems set to continue.”