2026 French lycée protests

Study conditions and the budget

The protests came at the start of the school year and at the same time as a public-sector strike over the government's budget plans.^[7]

The conditions at issue were not new. At Saint-Exupéry students pointed to unfilled teaching posts, no deputy head, no director of vocational and technological training, no school nurse, and no Accompagnant des élèves en situation de handicap (AESH) [fr] staff to support pupils with disabilities.^[2] A pupil told CNN that the toilets in the prefabs had no water, that there were cockroaches and rats in the school, and that teachers were not replaced when they left.^[8]

Another told franceinfo that some rooms had too few tables, and that teachers had explained their own discontent before the pupils decided to join them.^[3] Ryad Rani, president of the Union Syndicale Lycéenne (USL), later cited a pupil who had gone seven months without a French teacher in a year with a French exam, and classes of 32 to 36.^[9] Pupils elsewhere told ICI of classes of 35.^[6]

The Créteil rectorat told Agence France-Presse that demands still varied by school: teachers not replaced, class size, heavy timetables, shortages of education assistants, nurses, social workers and managers, incidents between pupils and teachers left without follow-up, and deficient undergraduate admissions web portal "Parcoursup".^[6] franceinfo summarised what it was hearing from pupils as more resources, smaller classes, buildings in better condition, enough teachers and staff, and less stress from Parcoursup.^[3]

Previous protests

In autumn 1990, lycée students, many from working-class Paris suburbs, protested over safety, cleanliness, staffing and materials. The protests reached on the order of 100,000 people in Paris and about 150,000 nationwide. Education minister Lionel Jospin answered with an emergency plan and an increase in the education budget.^[10][11]

In early 2005, lycée students mobilised against the Fillon orientation law,^[vague] and in particular against a reform of the baccalauréat.^{[citation needed]} About 100,000 marched on 10 February, by Lelièvre's account.^{[citation needed]} On 14 February, François Fillon announced a government amendment removing the baccalauréat from the bill.^{[citation needed]} He later said he had decided, on the evening of the first demonstration, that the exam would not be reformed unless the fears could be calmed.^{[citation needed]}

In spring 2018, opposition to the ORE law and to the new Parcoursup platform was carried mainly by university occupations.^{[citation needed]} Lycée blockades were scattered. In the autumn, lycée students mobilised again, against Parcoursup and against Jean-Michel Blanquer's baccalauréat reform. On 11 December, hundreds of establishments were blocked or badly disrupted.^[12] Le Monde diplomatique later wrote that this map could not be explained only by the knock-on effect of the Yellow vests protests, then at their height, but that the Yellow Vest movement was part of the context. (By 2 October The Economist was drawing comparisons with May 68.)^[13] Parcoursup was kept, with some adjustments, and the baccalauréat reform went ahead.^[12] In 2025 the USL had already called a national lycée blockade over the same kinds of grievance.^{[citation needed]} The union said 170 establishments took part.2026.^{[citation needed]}

On 1 October 2026, Rabah Safsaf, a mathematics teacher at the Lycée Gutenberg in Créteil, told Politis that the scene reminded him of the 2006 movement against the contrat première embauche.^{[citation needed]} That mobilisation ended when the government dropped the contract.2026.^{[citation needed]} Politis noted the difference: in 2026 there was no single bill the government could withdraw.^[14]

Lelièvre's conclusion was that the 2026 movement, because it began in the suburbs over day-to-day conditions rather than against a named reform, resembled 1990 more than 2005 or 2018.^[10] He added that a suggestion, made in the Senate and by the higher-education minister, that the baccalauréat might cease to be the key to university could still become a further cause, as in 2005 and 2018.^[10]

Emergence of the protests

The mobilisation that spread is generally traced to the Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in Créteil.^{[citation needed]} Franceinfo reported that, the day after a teachers' strike on 17 September against lack of resources and staff, pupils there organised a blockade. Cheick Sanogo, a première pupil aged 17, told franceinfo: "The teachers explained the reasons for their discontent and we decided to join them."^{[citation needed]} Pupils said they felt neglected by the Ministry of National Education and cited lack of resources and staff, overcrowded classes, and rooms short of tables.^{[citation needed]} An academic source and the USL later presented that mobilisation as the start of the national movement.^[15]

Contemporaneous reports, including Le Monde and a 24 September account by actu.fr, dated the spreading movement to Monday 21 September at the same lycée, where several teaching posts were unfilled.^[15]

The Créteil rectorat told AFP that demands still varied by school.^{[citation needed]} A terminale pupil at the Lycée Guillaume-Budé in Limeil-Brévannes told AFP: "It was peaceful. We didn't do anything stupid."^{[citation needed]} A terminale pupil at the Lycée Jean-Moulin in Le Blanc-Mesnil said she was outside from 7 a.m., that "it's been going badly for three years," and that some pupils were sitting the baccalauréat without a form teacher.^{[citation needed]}

Through 25 September the spread stayed local.^{[citation needed]} Actu.fr, citing the Créteil academy, said about 10 lycées were affected by 24 September, mainly in Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne,^{[citation needed]} and described a copycat effect on social networks.^{[citation needed]} That morning, pupils tried to block the entrance of the Lycée Auguste-Blanqui in Saint-Ouen until late morning.^{[citation needed]} An academy spokesperson told AFP there had been a gathering and material damage but no injuries. Police dispersed the crowd, and the school was closed for the afternoon at police request.^{[citation needed]}

On 25 September the Créteil rectorat said the movement was "rather gaining momentum" and counted "a good dozen" lycées blocked, above all in Seine-Saint-Denis and Val-de-Marne.^{[citation needed]} It said some mobilisations had produced crowds and material damage.^{[citation needed]} The Versailles rectorat reported disruption at three of 62 lycées in Essonne and mobilisations at five of 65 in Hauts-de-Seine.^{[citation needed]} The Île-de-France authority counted about 20 establishments affected, about 10 of them with damage, and about 10 lycées still mobilised out of 468 public lycées in the region.^{[citation needed]} Le Monde later wrote that about 60 Paris-region lycées were disrupted on 24 and 25 September, that about 12 percent of the 468 public lycées saw attempted blockades, and that around 10 were actually blocked.^{[citation needed]} It described the movement as sporadic until it intensified.^{[citation needed]}

The Paris police prefecture announced 31 arrests in the Paris agglomeration by 17:00 on 25 September.^{[citation needed]} It did not name the schools or say whether anyone was held in custody.^{[citation needed]} Rani told AFP that it had started at Saint-Exupéry and "spread very quickly," and cited shortages of education assistants, nurses and social workers.^[16][17][16]

28–30 September

On 28 September, Lecornu said escalation would be "irresponsible" and wrote that fireworks, fires, and violence near high schools endangered pupils, staff, and police.^[18] Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 164 people had been arrested that day, 180 schools were affected, and 12 security officers, 12 students, and three staff were injured.^[18] In Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, Val-d'Oise, a 14-year-old boy suffered a double fracture of the jaw and broken teeth.^[19]

On 29 September the Education Ministry said about 400 of roughly 3,700 lycées were disrupted. Nuñez told BFM TV that 440 people had been detained, most of them minors.^[2] CNN published photographs of police firing tear gas at the Lycée César-Baggio in Lille.^[8] In Saint-Denis, La France Insoumise (LFI) mayor Bally Bagayoko stood with pupils outside the Lycée Paul-Éluard. On BFM on 29 September he said that violence could, at a given moment, be legitimate. On 30 September Paris police prefect Patrice Faure referred him to the Bobigny prosecutor, under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure, for suspected provocation to commit an offence. On 1 October Bagayoko told franceinfo that he stood by the remarks and called for de-escalation.^[20][21] Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote that the pupils were harmless, that the crackdown had a racist undertone, and that LFI activists should "step in" between pupils and police.^[2]

On 30 September Nuñez said 625 people were detained, 83 police and gendarmes were wounded, and 356 schools were affected. He described projectiles, attempted arson, and what he called urban violence.^[22] Education Minister Édouard Geffray said 119 pupils and staff had been injured since the protests began.^[22] In Tours, a young person was hospitalised with head injuries.^[19]

1 October

On 1 October university students joined the blockades. The Union étudiante reported about 30 campus blockades, including Paris Cité, Sorbonne University, Strasbourg, Montpellier, Lyon, and Rennes.^[1] franceinfo added Sciences Po Rennes, Rennes 1, and the Université de Bretagne-Occidentale, and said students at Paul-Valéry in Montpellier and at Aix-Marseille University were mobilised.^[23] Police counts that morning were lower than the evening total: 340 actions and 169 blockades by mid-morning, according to franceinfo.^[24] The evening Interior Ministry figure was 1,027 lycées affected, 222 blockaded, and 1,949 arrests.^[5][6] The Guardian reported nearly 3,000 lycée students detained since the start, including the Thursday figure.^[25]

Lecornu held an interministerial crisis meeting and told ministers to cancel travel.^[25] His office said the violence made it nearly impossible to keep schools open safely, and that intelligence services described the movement as "an operation organised by LFI and its proxies on the far left."^[26][25] LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard said the government was "sinking into conspiracism" and called the mobilisation spontaneous.^[27]

Geffray ordered remote classes where damage or blockades made buildings unsafe, and said a little more than 400 establishments would be closed on 2 October.^[6][28] That evening the Interior Ministry said prefects had banned demonstrations outside the closed lycées. Paris police prefect Patrice Faure banned gatherings at 13 closed Paris schools.^[29]

2 October

About 400 of France's roughly 3,700 lycées were closed on the orders of the prefects, with many switching to distance learning. Every prefect banned gatherings outside lycées closed that day. In Paris, prefect of police Patrice Faure banned gatherings around 13 named closed lycées.^[30][31][32]

By midday the Ministry of National Education said 564 establishments "have been or are the subject of actions or disruptions since the start of the day". The Île-de-France region said 55 lycées were "the scene of violence, clashes and damage". Mobilisation was widely described as lower than on 1 October, but fires, mortar fire and clashes continued.^[31][33][34]

On BFM TV that morning, Education Minister Édouard Geffray said 1,207 lycées had been disrupted or blockaded on Thursday, that more than 100 had suffered "severe damage" since the start of the week, and that 65 education staff had been injured, including 40 headteachers. He said a staff flat in a Lyon lycée had been ransacked by people from outside the school, repeated that the movement had been "taken hostage by ultra-violent groups", and told parents that "in the street, children are in danger". From 09:00 he met education unions, the Union syndicale lycéenne, parents' groups and elected members of the Conseil national de la vie lycéenne. Services at Matignon described the mobilisation as a "manoeuvre organised by La France Insoumise and its ultra-left proxies"; LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard accused Matignon of "sinking into conspiracy thinking". After the meeting, SNES-FSU general secretary Sophie Vénétitay said there were still "no guarantees" and called a strike for the following Tuesday in support of the lycée demands. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin told prosecutors to seek parental civil liability so families would pay for damage caused by their children.^{[35][30][31][36]}

A bin fire spread to the façade of the lycée professionnel Gaston-Bachelard in the 13th arrondissement of Paris early in the morning; the entrance windows blew out and the Brigade de sapeurs-pompiers de Paris extinguished the blaze at about 07:55. Firefighters also put out a fire at the gate of the lycée Léonard-de-Vinci in the 15th. BFM TV filmed the charred entrance door of the lycée Roger-Verlomme, also in the 15th; Le Figaro reported that the fire followed mortar fire aimed at the door, that several bicycles burned, and that firefighters arrived within about two minutes. Le Parisien reported fireworks outside the lycée professionnel Beaugrenelle, on rue Saint-Charles, and a pallet-and-bin fire that firefighters put out shortly before 09:00. An Île-de-France regional employee was injured and treated by firefighters at the lycée Molière in the 16th. Around midday a barricade of bins was burning at Place de la Nation and police used tear gas. The Île-de-France region also listed a serious fire at the lycée Henri-Moissan in Meaux. RTL quoted the headteacher as saying the façade, entrance hall, part of the canteen and some boarding rooms had burned, and that the damage ran into millions of euros. France Télévisions authenticated images of a fire outside a school in Montigny-lès-Metz.^{[30][33][36][31][37][38][39][40][41]}

At the lycée Bougainville in Nantes, mortar fire and burning bins met the morning opening; police and CRS cleared several blockade attempts around 08:00, and Le Figaro reported 10 arrests nearby, one of a youth carrying a metal bar. In Rennes, bin-and-barrier barricades blocked traffic near the lycée Jean-Macé from about 08:30, with further tension at Émile-Zola and Joliot-Curie; Agence France-Presse reported a barricade and a Palestinian flag on a main road. In Quimper, police used tear gas to disperse a blockade of several hundred people at the lycée Chaptal.^[42][30][43]

In Lyon, mortar fire around 10:00 led to tear gas in the Foch district beside the lycée Édouard-Herriot; 44 establishments in the Rhône were closed, and a crowd remained outside the still-open lycée Ampère. In the Bordeaux academy, 18 lycées were closed and about 6,000 pupils were reported mobilised in Bordeaux, Mérignac, Bègles, Langon and Libourne; the authorities reported five police officers, one firefighter and four pupils injured, and two teachers confronted at their schools. In the Drôme, Agence France-Presse reported nine arrests and a policewoman injured in the knee during an intervention at a Montélimar lycée and taken to hospital. In Metz, ICI Lorraine reported mortar fire and tear gas at the lycée Fabert early in the morning, one arrest outside the school, and a bin fire at the lycée professionnel Léonard-de-Vinci in Montigny-lès-Metz that licked the building before firefighters put it out. Further clashes and at least one arrest were reported at midday at the entrance of the university campus.^{[30][43][31][44]}

In Évreux, several hundred people gathered from 08:00 outside the lycée Aristide-Briand. Paris-Normandie reported a washing machine set alight, gates forced, windows broken and repeated mortar fire, and quoted prefect Xavier Delarue denouncing "urban violence". France 3 Normandie reported that Delarue said groups had tried to force the entrance in order to burn the lycée, with Molotov cocktails and projectiles, and that the headteacher of another Évreux lycée said Aristide-Briand had suffered mortar fire and an intrusion that succeeded.^[45][46]

In La Ciotat, the local site Var Actu reported that a physics teacher at the lycée de la Méditerranée was hit in the face with the contents of a bottle described as containing petrol, briefly blinded, and then kicked, after he tried to put out a fire lit near a tree at about 08:25. It said the suspected teenager was caught and arrested. A live blog citing Le Figaro described the victim as the headteacher, "doused with petrol and beaten" while trying to calm a tense blockade, and said one person was arrested and then released because of the crowd facing the police. The two accounts name the same lycée and the same morning, but not the same victim.^[47][48]

A Friday claim that staff at the lycée Victor-Hugo in Marseille, beside Gare Saint-Charles, had been doused with petrol refers to Thursday 1 October, not a new attack. Franceinfo reported on 2 October that the lycée was closed after Thursday's clashes, that the entrance door was charred, and that the management team had been splashed with petrol. La Provence reported the rectorat's correction: the headteachers "were not directly targeted by youths who doused them" but were splashed while people poured petrol into bins. The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region had said a headteacher, a deputy head, a general secretary and a team leader were attacked and doused. BFM Marseille reported that the prefecture and the rectorat said they would file a complaint, and that the damaged door had to be made safe.^[49][50][51]

Separately on 2 October, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said images of "rare violence" showed a police officer in Belfort deliberately targeted, thrown to the ground and beaten, including to the head, by masked people in black on the margins of the lycée blockades. The officer lost consciousness and was hospitalised; Nuñez said his condition was no longer a major concern. The Belfort prosecutor opened an investigation for attempted murder of a person holding public authority. Franceinfo's photograph of the intervention is dated 1 October, so the beating itself may predate the Friday announcement.^[52][53]

No national arrest total for 2 October had been published by early afternoon. The latest Interior Ministry count remained Thursday's: 1,949 arrests, with 305 police and gendarmes injured that day, and 1,793 people placed in custody since Monday, about 90 per cent of them minors.^[31][54]

5 October

On 5 October, 400 to 500 schools across France were partially or totally closed. Geffray said lessons were "totally or partly suspended" because security conditions "have not been fulfilled." He added that 24 schools had been "burned or ransacked" since the protests began.^[55]

On 5 October 2026, during the high-school mobilisation, the Lycée des métiers Nicolas-Louis-Vauquelin in Paris’s 13th arrondissement was targeted by a group of about ten youths wearing hoods, masks and black clothing. According to the head teacher, Carole Zerbib, and several pupils, the masked youths were not students at the school.Marc Bertrand (5 October 2026). "Des élèves confinés pendant deux heures dans un lycée parisien après des tirs de mortiers et départs de feu". franceinfo (in French). Retrieved 5 October 2026.Juliette Moreau Alvarez (5 October 2026). "Une centaine d'élèves évacués d'un lycée parisien après des incendies allumés aux portes de l'établissement, un ministre dénonce "des actes criminels"". BFMTV (in French). Retrieved 5 October 2026. It was the first call to blockade the school since the movement began.

Shortly before 8:00 a.m., as pupils were entering, fireworks mortars were fired and a first fire was started in front of the metal door. Staff put that fire out. About 100 pupils were confined inside and moved upstairs. The group piled bins, bulky rubbish and bicycles against the entrance, brought over a sofa, smashed windows and tried to force the door, which held. After police and firefighters had left, the group returned around 9:00 a.m. and started two further fires at the doors with a flammable liquid, feeding them with the debris. Staff tried to extinguish the flames from inside, through the letter slot, and failed. Firefighters put out the last fire around 9:30 a.m. Pupils were evacuated shortly before 10:00 a.m. and sent home. The Paris education authority reported three fire starts, told parents not to come near the school, and classes were cancelled for the day. Juliette Moreau Alvarez (5 October 2026). "Lycée Vauquelin pris pour cible: la proviseure de l'établissement parisien dénonce "un déchaînement de violences"". BFMTV (in French). Retrieved 5 October 2026.

At about 10:30 or 11:00 a.m. in Lens, outside the Lycée professionnel Auguste-Béhal, a 15-year-old pupil in seconde had his hand blown off by a police grenade during a blockade. Between 200 and 250 young people were gathered, and the prefect of Pas-de-Calais, François-Xavier Lauch, said some of them had thrown projectiles at police. Lauch and the prosecutor of Béthune, Étienne Thieffry, confirmed the injury, said the boy was taken to hospital in Lille, and said his life was not in danger. The IGPN was seized. A police source told Le Figaro that he had picked up a dispersal grenade thrown by the CRS in order to throw it back, and that it exploded in his hand. The authorities said the exact circumstances still had to be established. ""Main arrachée", IGPN saisie, cellule d'écoute: ce que l'on sait de la grave blessure d'un lycéen lors d'une manifestation à Lens". BFMTV (in French). 5 October 2026. Retrieved 5 October 2026.Esther Paolini (5 October 2026). "Blocage des lycées : à Lens, un adolescent a eu la main arrachée en ramassant une grenade lors d'affrontements avec la police". Le Figaro (in French). Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis

In Saint-Denis, the Lycée Paul-Éluard was closed after fires at the gates. CNN reported that fencing was torn down.^[8] Le Figaro reported soot on the bitumen, fire damage on the metal gates, and banners denouncing lack of resources and police violence. It said the Lycée Frédéric Bartholdi was also closed, that courses were cancelled, and that a handful of students from Paris 8 and Paris 13 remained after the lycée pupils had left.^[56] On 28 September, HuffPost reported clashes at the same lycée, with tear gas used against pupils, arrests, and mortars and other projectiles thrown at police.^[57] On 29 September, Paris Match reported bins set on fire in front of the gates, a call to the fire service, and two arrests at about 8:15 a.m.^[58] A CLPRESS video from the same morning showed a fence falling after pupils shook it.^[59] RMC reported that the principal of the Lycée Jean-Pierre-Timbaud in Aubervilliers was slightly burned by a mortar round, and that a principal in Val-de-Marne was grazed by a mortar and shocked but not injured.^[60]

In Pantin, BFM reported a fire lit in front of the Lycée Berthelot and mortar rounds fired at the pupils.^[61]

The Île-de-France regional authority said more than 200 lycées were disrupted, about 50 of them the scene of violence, and that about 30 gates or entrance locks had been damaged, at a cost it put above €1 million.^[1][62]

On 28 September in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, the 14-year-old's lawyer, Elsa Marcel, said he had a double jaw fracture, broken upper teeth and several broken lower teeth, and that he required heavy surgery. The Défenseur des droits opened an inquiry. Nuñez said the IGPN had been asked to investigate injuries to lycée students in Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône, Sevran, and Tours.^[19]

In Paris, the prefecture of police said a young policewoman who had stopped to pick up a fallen radio was caught by several people, and kicked. The assault was filmed. She filed a complaint. The prefect said the acts were unspeakable.^[63]

Europe 1 reported that Ritchy Thibault, 23, a former parliamentary assistant to LFI deputy Ersilia Soudais, was arrested in Saint-Denis on 1 October during the blockades. On a video filmed by a participant, he told the crowd that 17 October would be "a thousand times worse than the Yellow Vests", and then: "We're going to build barricades. We're going to set fire to the Élysée. We're going to make the Revolution." Europe 1 said he was under judicial supervision that barred him from demonstrations, and that he was listed as a security threat.^[64][65]

Hauts-de-France

On 30 September in Roubaix, ICI reported that the entrance door of the private Lycée Léonard-de-Vinci caught fire after bins were set alight. A pupil who passed at about 7:30 a.m. put the crowd at least 200. Firefighters and police attended, and tear gas was used. The school cancelled classes for Wednesday and Thursday.^[66] La Voix du Nord reported gatherings that morning at Saint-Martin, Léonard-de-Vinci, and Saint-Rémi, with bin fires that damaged a door and a gate. It said about 100 teenagers then marched to Jean-Moulin, where the entrance grilles were taken down, and that police pushed back about 150 pupils at Baudelaire. At Louis-Loucheur, bins were burned and people tried to pull the gate off. The Nord prefecture told ICI that 29 schools in the department were disrupted that day and that 25 people were arrested.^[67]

In Lille on 1 October, Ouest-France reported burning bins and projectiles thrown at riot police near the neighbouring lycées Gaston-Berger and Faidherbe, and police charges with tear gas. franceinfo reported a police intervention at Faidherbe.^[23] La Voix du Nord reported that Tuesday's mobilisation included serious damage at the Lycée César-Baggio, where a teacher was assaulted.^[68] ICI reported bins burned and bus shelters smashed at Baggio on 29 September, with tear gas used against a crowd of about 200.^[69][70]

In Haubourdin, near Lille, franceinfo reported that municipal buildings were ransacked, that the Lycée Beaupré stayed closed on Thursday and Friday, and that two nearby schools were also closed.^[23] ICI reported bins burned there and wrote that the lycée and the two nearby schools would stay closed until Monday.^[71] On 28 September, La Voix du Nord reported that about 100 young people burned tires and pieces of wood outside Beaupré, and that police used tear gas.^[72][73]

In Tourcoing, La Voix du Nord reported that at the Lycée Sévigné a young man was found unconscious on the ground and got up a few minutes later. After police arrived, the crowd scattered. Some people arrived with sticks and fire extinguishers, and projectiles including glass bottles and stones were thrown at police. Police used tear gas and fired rubber-bullet rounds.^[74]

In Auchel, Pas-de-Calais, the principal of the vocational lycée Fernand-Degrugillier was hit by a projectile and hospitalised, the prefecture told ICI.^[23][6] BFM Grand Lille, citing the sub-prefect of Béthune and the prefecture, reported that the projectile was a mortar round that struck him in the ear, and that the rectorat would file a complaint.^[75] RMC, citing the Béthune prosecutor, reported a lit firecracker that bounced and exploded about two metres from him.^[60] La Voix du Nord reported that an 18-year-old girl was burned on the neck by an aerosol used to feed a bin fire at the Lycée Léo-Lagrange in Bully-les-Mines, and that a 15-year-old girl in Arras was hospitalised with a scalp wound after being hit by a projectile.^[74]

Normandy

The Normandy rectorat said the principals of the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Rouen and the Lycée Élisa-Lemonnier in Le Petit-Quevilly were assaulted and slightly injured.^[76][77] Tendance Ouest, citing the academy, reported that the Blaise-Pascal principal was targeted by a firework mortar, hit in the abdomen, and burned, and that he stayed on site.^[78] Paris-Normandie reported that a fire of bins, pallets, and other objects heavily damaged the doors and entrances of Blaise-Pascal, and that the building itself did not catch fire. It said the principal was injured by a firework mortar that morning, and that the school, already blockaded on 30 September, would stay closed until 5 October.^[79] actu.fr reported five people injured across the academy, material damage inside some blockaded lycées, 33 fire-service callouts, and more than 240 firefighters. It placed bin fires at the gates of Blaise-Pascal, not inside the building, and also at Marcel-Sembat in Sotteville-lès-Rouen and at Camille-Saint-Saëns in central Rouen.^[77] ICI separately reported a fire at Blaise-Pascal.^[6] BBC News reported a school entrance on fire in Rouen.^[5] Paris-Normandie reported that a masked group arrived at Marcel-Sembat in Sotteville-lès-Rouen at about 7:45 a.m. with two rows of shopping carts used as barricades, one at the gates and one on rue Léon-Salva.^[80] The rectorat said about 30 lycées in Seine-Maritime would stay closed on 2 October.^[77]

In Le Havre, Paris-Normandie reported a large fire of bins and branches outside the Lycée Porte-Océane, a heavy police presence, and at least one arrest. It reported several hundred pupils outside Claude-Monet, electric scooters on fire near François-Ier, and a charge toward police that the police answered.^[81] ICI reported fire damage at Porte-Océane, a street fire outside Françoise-de-Grâce, destroyed bins and at least two burned cars near Jules-Siegfried, and a fire at Saint-Vincent-de-Paul.^[82]

In Caen, Ouest-France reported barricades at the lycées Malherbe, Rostand, Fresnel, and Laplace, and a fire in the roadway in front of Malherbe.^[83]

Brittany

In Ille-et-Vilaine, Ouest-France reported that firefighters went to 18 schools and made 43 callouts: 36 fires on the public highway, two vehicle fires, and five rescues. At the Lycée Bréquigny in Rennes, people entered the building, broke windows, and burned the main gate on avenue Georges-Graff. Seven people were arrested. Callouts were also reported in Cesson-Sévigné, Saint-Malo, Bain-de-Bretagne, Dinard, and Vitré.^[84] Le Télégramme reported that LFI deputy Marie Mesmeur, wearing a tricolour sash, stood in front of a fire of bins and a shopping cart on allée Henri-Bergson and told people to stop feeding it and to stop throwing stones at a new Renault Trafic. The crowd then struck a white Audi with iron bars. A resident who tried to stop the damage was insulted. Mesmeur said the damage and thefts were not necessarily the work of the lycée pupils. The paper reported that 11 of 14 people placed in custody the day before were lycée pupils.^[85] A second Ouest-France account said about 30 people were at the Lycée Jean-Macé from 7 a.m., that bins and barriers blocked the entrance, and that pupils then blocked the entrance of the neighbouring law faculty. It reported heavy tear-gas use at Joliot-Curie.^[86]

In Saint-Brieuc, Ouest-France reported about 700 lycée students in the streets, from Chaptal, Sacré-Cœur, Jean-Moulin, and Freyssinet. At Sacré-Cœur, bottles were thrown at the road and a wall, and two workshop windows were broken.^[87]

Pays de la Loire

At the Lycée Nelson-Mandela, on the Île de Nantes, a fire reached the entrance hall on the morning of 1 October. franceinfo, citing police, said the blaze began on the facade and spread inside. About 50 firefighters were sent. The fire service said there were no victims. Classes were damaged. The school management told families, in an email seen by ICI, that the lycée should not reopen before the Toussaint holiday.^[88][89] Deputy principal Gaëlle Cordier told Agence France-Presse the fire was deliberate. The rectorat said the entrance burned after a gathering marked by violence toward staff. Ouest-France reported the entrance doors destroyed and the facade blackened.^[90] BBC News reported fires at two Nantes high schools.^[5][91][92]

The glass entrance doors of the Lycée Talensac, also in Nantes, were destroyed by fire within minutes. That fire was put out.^[23] At Michelet, Ouest-France reported fires lit on the tram tracks, which stopped the tram.^[93] At La Colinière, firework mortars caused a crowd movement among the pupils.^[93] Ouest-France reported that an Aléop school coach stopped at the Colinière bus stop was rushed by a group of young people, some in black, hoods, and medical masks. Projectiles broke several windows. Passengers moved to the back of the coach, and the driver drove off. The bus-stop windows were then smashed. The driver told the paper he had been afraid for his passengers.^[94] The same paper, citing Semitan, reported that five tram cars had windows broken, that passenger shelters and tram infrastructure were damaged, and that lines 2 and 4 and central bus lines were diverted.^[95] Ouest-France also reported bin fires and mortar fire blocking the boulevard in front of the Lycée Carcouët.^[96]

Ouest-France reported blockades that morning at Camus, Guist'hau, La Colinière, Michelet, and Mandela in Nantes, and about 500 people with barriers at Jean-Perrin in Rezé, where fires of branches and bins were lit on the roadway.^[97] Ouest-France said the day's blockades in the department ran from Pornic to Nantes and Saint-Nazaire.^[93]

The Loire-Atlantique prefecture told franceinfo in the morning that nine schools had been damaged, that fires had been set at three, including Mandela, and that 18 people had been arrested in the department. It blamed "violent individuals" who it said had joined the lycée students.^[23] Ouest-France, citing the prefecture later in the day, reported 35 arrests.^[93] The prefect, the rector, and head teachers were due to meet that evening. Ouest-France reported that some public lycées in Nantes would be closed on Friday and that private schools in the city centre would teach remotely.^[98]

In Avrillé, near Angers, Ouest-France reported that a group forced the administrative entrance of the Lycée Paul-Émile-Victor, stole furniture, archives, and computer equipment, and set the stolen material on fire.^[99] In Angers, the same paper reported an intrusion at the Lycée Chevrollier and two teachers injured. It said one teacher was caught in a crush at the gate, slightly injured in the head, and in shock. It also reported bin fires, smashed bus shelters, and stones thrown at fire engines and police cars.^[100][101]

Centre-Val de Loire

franceinfo reported clashes between police and protesters outside the Lycée Grandmont in Tours, the largest lycée in the agglomeration.^[23] The Tours case is also one of the three IGPN inquiries into injured pupils.^[19]

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

ICI reported that the principal of the Lycée Ambroise-Brugière in Clermont-Ferrand was slightly injured in the head by a mortar round, which the prefecture attributed to masked people from outside the school. The same account listed about 10 bin fires and a halt to the city's T2C transit network.^[6][102] RTL's account of attacks on school heads also cited mortar fire in Clermont.^[76][103]

franceinfo published a photograph of a burning barricade near the Lycée Mounier in Grenoble.^[23] In Annecy, the Lycée Sommelier was blockaded. The gates of the Lycée Gabriel-Fauré were damaged, and its about 1,800 pupils were told to follow lessons remotely on Friday. A second Annecy lycée was also put on remote teaching because of degraded security.^[89][104] Le Dauphiné libéré reported deliberate container fires and mortar fire at school gates in the Annecy basin, and tear gas after clashes with police. It named blockades at Louis-Berthollet, Germain-Sommeiller, Gabriel-Fauré, Louis-Lachenal in Argonay, Tom-Morel, and Charles-Baudelaire in Cran-Gevrier.^[105] ICI reported that the gathering at Charles-Baudelaire degenerated, that mortars were fired at police, and that police answered with tear gas. It also reported fires of street furniture at Berthollet, Sommelier, and Louis-Lachenal, and damaged gates at Gabriel-Fauré. The Haute-Savoie prefecture told ICI of 12 arrests, most of them minors, and said Sommelier, Baudelaire, Berthollet, Fauré, and Lachenal would stay closed on 2 October.^[106] L'Essor savoyard described the gathering in front of Charles-Baudelaire as more peaceful, with about 50 pupils and placards, and placed the mortars and the closed road on avenue du Capitaine-Anjot, near Tom-Morel.^[107] RTL, citing the prefect of the Loire, reported that principals were injured, to differing degrees, at Rive-de-Gier and Saint-Étienne, and that two gendarmes and three police officers in the department were hit by stones or mortar fire.^[76] In Saint-Étienne, Radio SCOOP reported bins set on fire and windows broken with barriers at the Lycée Étienne-Mimard, and a crowd pushed back at Claude-Fauriel. Citing Le Progrès, it said the gymnasium of the Sainte-Marie school was ransacked.^[108][109] Le Progrès reported an intrusion inside Sainte-Marie and quoted the school's management as saying it had never seen that level of violence.^[110] TL7 reported mortar fire at Étienne-Mimard, a security perimeter, and 20 arrests in the police zone, most of them minors. The prefecture told the station that 15 public lycées and one private school in the Loire were affected.^[111] The city of Saint-Étienne condemned bin fires, fires on the tram tracks, and torn-down road signs.^[112]

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur

At the Lycée Saint-Exupéry, in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille a fire engine sent to a rubbish fire was itself set alight after the crew was forced off the vehicle.^{[76][23][113]} The Bouches-du-Rhône prefecture told BFM that hundreds of young people surrounded the marine-firefighters' engine, forced the crew to leave it, and set it on fire. The battalion said a first-intervention vehicle was also burned and that one marine firefighter was slightly injured. BFM also reported that equipment inside the engine was taken.^[114]

At the Lycée Victor-Hugo, accounts differed. The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional council told RTL that a fire was attempted inside the building and that the principal, deputy principal, general secretary, and team leader were assaulted and doused with petrol. RTL reported that the principal and deputy were splashed unintentionally while youths tried to set a bin alight, and that one member of the management was thrown to the ground without a visible injury. A witness told RTL she had been sent video of the deputy principal being hit at 7 a.m.^[76] Reuters reported local authorities as saying teachers were splashed inadvertently.^[26] The rectorat later told Agence France-Presse that the deputy principal and two other staff were splashed by people putting petrol into containers.^[115] BFM reported that the rectorat had walked back the region's wording, from staff "doused" with petrol to staff "splashed" by petrol a group was putting into containers.^[116]

The Marseille transit authority, RTM, stopped the entire network after buses were attacked near lycées in the north and east of the city. Marsactu, citing RTM, reported that a bus was set on fire beside the Lycée La Floride, in the 14th arrondissement, that drivers had to leave their vehicles in a hurry, and that one driver was assaulted. RTM said it would file a complaint.^[117] Actu.fr reported that pupils took control of a bus at La Floride and then set it on fire.^[118] Reuters reported assaults on drivers with injuries.^[1] The Bouches-du-Rhône police prefecture said 40 lycées were affected, 18 of them fully blocked, with more than 4,600 participants.^[1] RTL reported that M6 said a Marseille correspondent was injured in the forehead and his camera broken while covering a lycée protest, and that the group was filing a complaint.^[119] Ouest-France, citing M6's journalists' society, placed the assault at the Lycée Saint-Exupéry: the correspondent was surrounded as he was leaving, struck several times, and his camera was destroyed.^[120]

In Manosque, Le Dauphiné libéré reported eight arrests, one person injured, and the start of a fire at the town hall. About 950 of the department's 5,000 lycée pupils were mobilised. Prefect Isabelle Tomatis said the right to protest was not a right to assault, smash, or burn.^[121]

In Avignon, the same paper reported that students from theAubanel, René-Char, and Philippe-de-Girard lycéees barricaded themselves behind bins and that some threw Molotov cocktails when CRS tried to push them back. It put the arrests at about 20.^[122] ICI, citing the Vaucluse prefecture, reported fires on the public highway, destroyed street furniture, three police officers and one gendarme injured, and three fire engines hit by projectiles. At Philippe-de-Girard it reported two fire engines hit, a destroyed bus shelter, and eggs thrown at the town hall.^[123] La Provence reported that police and firefighters putting out bin fires at Philippe-de-Girard and Aubanel were targeted with projectiles.^[124][125]

Occitanie

Midi Libre reported a fire at the Lycée Mendès-France in Montpellier, with firefighters sent to contain it, and further damage around that school.^[126] In Nîmes, the same paper's live blog reported that the Lycée Saint-Vincent-de-Paul had a tagged facade and broken windows. It said people from outside the school put up barricades and set them on fire at about 7:15 a.m., that staff first confined the pupils, and that the school was then evacuated.^[127] The Gard prefecture, reported by TV Sud, counted 580 people at 16 schools in Nîmes, Alès, and Rodilhan, with bin fires, gates and street furniture torn down, vandalised portals, and intrusions. It reported 22 arrests and 13 people slightly injured, including six police officers and two education staff.^[128]

Nouvelle-Aquitaine

In La Rochelle, Sud Ouest reported that a Yélo bus was attacked in the morning near the Lycée Rompsay. About 20 young passengers were on board. Two were slightly injured. Eleven others, and the driver, were treated for shock. Several bus shelters were vandalised at place de Verdun, where the marches met. The network was suspended and was due to resume in the middle of the afternoon. The agglomeration said the afternoon school run would still run.^[129][130]

South-west, Grand Est, and other cities

Reuters reported that riot police clashed with youths in Toulouse and that at least one car was burned in Strasbourg.^{[26][131][132]} In Tournefeuille, west of Toulouse, La Dépêche du Midi reported fires and projectiles at the Lycée Françoise from about 9:30 a.m., smashed windows at the entrance, and staff moved to the back of the building. A resident told the paper there was smoke everywhere and that police were firing smoke grenades.^[133] At the Lycée Stéphane-Hessel, in the Roseraie district, La Dépêche reported that bins were set alight and then the lodge was burned. Teachers and pupils told the paper that many people from outside the school had joined the blockade.^[134] The same paper reported a large fire that reached the lodge of the Lycée Roland-Garros.^[134] Toulouse FM reported bins, a bicycle, and a Tisséo bus shelter set on fire or smashed on route d'Espagne during the blockade of the Lycée Gallieni, and a CRS charge to clear the entrance for firefighters. It listed further clashes at Déodat-de-Séverac, Les Arènes, Bellevue, Ozenne, Saint-Sernin, Henri-de-Toulouse-Lautrec, Urbain-Vitry, and Rive-Gauche.^[135] ICI, citing the authorities, reported 57 arrests in Haute-Garonne, 13 pupils slightly injured, including several attacked while trying to put out a fire, damaged gates, lodges partly destroyed at two lycées, about 30 vandalised bus shelters, and fires of bins and tyres. Hessel and Françoise were among 18 schools closed the next day.^[136] On 29 September, Toulouse FM reported that a member of the management at Stéphane-Hessel was charged, knocked down, and beaten by a crowd of minors while trying to put out a bin fire.^[137] In Strasbourg, authorities halted trams. Al Jazeera reported that barriers were burned on the tracks.^[138] franceinfo's photograph caption showed a street blocked at the Lycée Camille-Jullian in Bordeaux.^[24] franceinfo also reported mortar fire in Bordeaux, then a fire on a lycée facade.^[139] The same report said a pupil was burned in front of classmates at another Nantes lycée.^[139] RMC reported that a deputy principal in Nîmes was slightly injured.^[60]

Attacks not tied to a named school

CNN reported that videos showed two teachers being attacked, and that the presidency, officials, and teaching unions condemned the footage. It did not name the schools. It also reported a government figure of one pupil who partly lost the use of a hand after setting off a firework.^[8] Al Jazeera, citing regional education authorities, prefectures, and unions, reported that several principals were injured, harassed, or assaulted during Thursday's blockades.^[138] RMC reported that at least 10 head teachers and deputy heads had been injured since the protests began.^[60]

Belgium

On 1 October the mobilisation was echoed in Liège. The Liège police said a call on social media brought pupils, at about 8 a.m., to five schools: the Athénée de Fragnée, Saint-Laurent, Saint-Sépulcre, Marie-Thérèse, and Liège-Atlas. The police said eggs, apples, barriers, and firecrackers were thrown at the schools and at officers, and that one member of a school's management was physically attacked.^[140] RTBF reported a fire near the Institut Marie-Thérèse, on rue Hors-Château, into which scooters and barriers were thrown, road signs and street furniture torn up, and some vehicles damaged. It reported that a glass door at the Collège Saint-Barthélemy was smashed with an iron bar, and that the Carrefour Express on rue Saint-Léonard was vandalised. The police told RTBF of five judicial arrests and one administrative arrest, and said there had been no further incident after 1 p.m. Rue Hors-Château, closed during the clashes, reopened at 2 p.m. after the city cleared the fire damage.^[141] Sudinfo reported schools vandalised and scooters set on fire.^[142] RTBF said the French mobilisation appeared to be spreading to Belgium. Pupils were filmed chanting "Glatigny, casse-toi", aimed at the Walloon education minister.^[141][143] VRT NWS reported that free-network and municipal secondary schools in Liège would stay closed on 2 October for safety.^[144] At the Athénée Paul-Brusson in Montegnée, RTBF reported a quiet blockade in support of teachers, with no clash.^{[141][145][146][140]}

Public opinion

A poll conducted for Le Figaro indicates that 62% of French people believe that the students’ movement is justified.^[148] The same poll found that 61% believed that LFI was too involved, 74% felt that the party was putting students in danger, and 78% felt that the party was exploiting the movement for political gain.^[149]

Government

Lecornu said the difficulties of the lycées "must be heard" and that violence had to be condemned.^[18] After the 1 October crisis meeting, his office called the unrest urban violence and cited the intelligence assessment naming LFI.^[26] Le Figaro reported that it had seen a note from the Paris police prefecture whose authors wrote that the origins of the movement "plainly reside in an instrumentalisation of student-union structures and of political movements close to the far left." Matignon told the paper that about 20 national LFI office-holders were involved on 29 September, from Lille to Rennes and Toulouse.^[150] Geffray said the lycée movement had been "taken hostage by ultra-violent groups", told parents not to let their children join, and said no demand could justify the acts.^[151][6] Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin called the 36 prosecutors general to a video meeting and asked for a firm penal response.^[152] Nuñez said police had opened internal inquiries into allegations of brutality against three students.^[138]

Political parties

Bruno Retailleau, a Republican presidential candidate, told BFM-RMC that LFI was "fascinated by violence", was calling for sedition, and was trying to organise an insurrection. He said the lycée clashes were a "dress rehearsal" for 2027 if Marine Le Pen won, and raised the question of banning LFI.^[153] Mélenchon had already called the pupils harmless and the police response racist in tone.^[2][153]

Gabriel Attal, a Renaissance presidential candidate, told Agence France-Presse that LFI's use of the movement was unbearable and asked Mélenchon and LFI deputies to stop using young people as "political cannon fodder". BFM reported that Attal had first repeated the regional council's claim that a Marseille management team had been doused with petrol, and that the rectorat then described them as splashed.^[115][116]

Bompard rejected Matignon's account of the origin of the movement.^[27] Valérie Pécresse, president of Île-de-France, gave the damage estimate above €1 million.^[154] Le Figaro reported that Pécresse said she would send a €100,000 bill to the mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoko, for the Paul-Éluard gate, guarding, and cleaning, and that she accused him of having encouraged the people who damaged it.^[155] Europe 1 quoted the region's vice-president, James Chéron, saying those responsible and their legal guardians would be pursued, and that the region counted more than 20 burned gates and about 10 ransacked schools.^[156]