French police crush students as Macron defends crumbling schools
By Maya Ellison · Reporting from Detroit ·
As French students protest crumbling schools, the Macron administration meets them with tear gas and mass arrests to protect its austerity budget.
The state protects its budget by meeting students with tear gas
When children sit in classrooms with peeling ceilings and broken heating, they are not staging a stunt. They are learning what their government thinks of them. Across France, more than 700 schools were disrupted. Students demanded basic human dignity in places where they are supposed to learn. They face overcrowded classes, a lack of teachers, and buildings falling apart around them. Instead of fixing roofs or putting books in classrooms, President Emmanuel Macron's administration sent in riot police.
According to reports from the BBC and The Guardian, 3,000 people have been arrested since late September. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin labeled the youth movement a public order disturbance. He asked prosecutors to hold parents liable for property damage and make them pay for repairs. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez told TF1 they are sliding into riot and urban violence. He vowed to use all intermediate means to stop it. Police charged at protesters in Pantin and deployed tear gas in Strasbourg.
This is the playbook of a ruling class caught short. When people ask for structural investment, the state offers up truncheons and detention cells. The 2023 French pension reform protests showed how the Macron administration uses police force to silence opposition. The 2005 French riots showed how state violence and mass arrests suppress protests sparked by systemic neglect. Today, the target is high schoolers demanding functional facilities, and the method remains identical.
The May 68 events live on as youth reject systemic neglect
The government wants everyone to look at burning bins so no one looks at the books. Education Minister Édouard Geffray claimed the movement was hijacked. He said teachers reported the protesters were not their students. This is the exact mechanism of the May 68 events. Back then, students ignited a nationwide uprising against a rigid political order.
The parallels run deep through the asphalt of Paris and Nantes. Students are organizing blockades because the state refuses to listen. Sophia, a 17-year-old student at Lycée Voltaire, told The Guardian they just want the government to listen. She would rather stand on a barricade than learn in poor conditions. Yet officials prefer conspiracy theories to concessions. They claim the protests lack national demands, ignoring the unified roar of youth living through a crumbling social contract.
Behind the barricades lie the real grievances. Teaching hours go untaught due to staff shortages. Students face an online university application system that treats them like numbers. They swelter in summer heatwaves while politicians cut education budgets. As Occupy Wall Street proved, a generation facing crushing debt eventually clashes with state security forces. They will fight an elite that ignores their basic needs.
The ruling class criminalizes youth while cutting the future
The state wants to treat a structural infrastructure crisis as a criminal conspiracy. DW.com reported that regional authorities claimed millions of euros in damages. The authorities find plenty of money for riot gear and police overtime. They find none for school nurses, supervisors, or air conditioning. They would rather jail teenagers than tax the wealthy to pay for roof repairs.
The human cost of this repression is mounting daily. As Time Magazine reported, 3,000 people have been arrested. Dozens of students and staff members have suffered injuries. A 14-year-old boy in Val d’Oise suffered serious injuries to his mouth and jaw. Police allegedly beat him and used a rubber-bullet launcher. His lawyer said the boy thought he was going to die. This is what happens when a government decides that protecting property matters more than protecting children.
The French government will escalate its use of preemptive mass arrests. They will threaten parents with civil liability to crush the blockades before the October 6 national day of action. Justice Minister Darmanin and Interior Minister Nuñez are doubling down on intimidation because they have nothing else to offer. They will fail to break the spirit of a generation that has already seen its future mortgaged by austerity. When the state meets children with tear gas, it teaches them that power respects only force. The students are learning that lesson well.
Sources
- BBC: Riot police clash with students as education protests rage in France
- The Guardian: Fires, fury and hundreds of arrests as France gripped by student protests
- Time Magazine: Why Are Students Protesting Across France?
- DW.com: France: 400 schools closed as student protests continue
- BBC: Riot police clash with students as education protests rage in France
- RFI English: France closes 400 schools as student unrest over conditions continues