French prime minister calls emergency meeting as student protests spread nationwide
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High-school students across France have staged demonstrations over school conditions, prompting Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to cancel ministerial trips and convene a crisis meeting.
France's prime minister convened an emergency meeting on Thursday and ordered ministers to suspend official travel as student protests spread beyond the Paris region. The demonstrations, which began in schools near the capital last week, have escalated into clashes with police, resulting in hundreds of arrests and dozens of injuries.
Students say they are reacting to overloaded timetables, insufficient resources and a lack of dialogue with authorities. At a barricaded Paris high school, 18-year-old Salama Gargouri said protesters aim to target "overloaded schedules, the system, the teachers, people who don't listen to us, the university application process." Another student, Janna Tahari, warned that long school days "what that does mentally" can be harmful.
Authorities have deployed police to dismantle blockades and prevent further violence. Interior ministry orders call for the removal of obstacles that keep pupils from attending classes and for an end to vandalism. Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced that remote lessons would be used when schools are unsafe, adding that "Violence will not deprive our students of their fundamental right to education" in a post on X.
Some teachers have joined the protests to act as buffers between police and students. Juliette Estiville, a Spanish teacher, said she is present to protect the young people and to form a barrier between police and demonstrators.
The unrest is occurring amid the upcoming presidential election campaign and a pending 2027 budget proposal, adding political pressure to an already strained government response.