{
  "id": 12638320,
  "title": "Neue Kundgebungen angekündigt: Schulproteste in Frankreich: Regierung weiter unter Druck",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/07/neue-kundgebungen-angekundigt-schulproteste-in-frankreich-regierung",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-10-07T13:12:59.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Handelsblatt",
    "slug": "handelsblatt",
    "url": "https://www.handelsblatt.com/politik/international/neue-kundgebungen-angekuendigt-schulproteste-in-frankreich-regierung-weiter-unter-druck/100260373.html"
  },
  "original_language": "de",
  "account": "France continues the student protests seven months before the presidential election, raising concerns about broader social unrest across the country. Following large demonstrations on Tuesday, individual blockade actions occurred at high schools and universities on Wednesday. Education trade unions called for renewed demonstrations on Thursday. After a crisis meeting with President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced a speech about the school situation, high fuel prices, agricultural crisis, and the country's strained finances on Wednesday evening. All attempts by the Macron's centrist government to channel the seven-month-long protests of young people have so far failed. On Sunday, he had instructed ministers to find concrete measures to improve the school situation and listen to the justified concerns of high school students. On Tuesday, he declared that discussions about the problems should take place at schools from Wednesday to Friday, not classes. Many students, however, returned to protests in front of the buildings. 528 schools were closed for precautionary reasons, partially or completely. No promises from the government yet. The students' demands are simple and understandable: they want better school equipment, more teachers, and better learning conditions. Specifically, it's about missing substitute teachers, rundown schools with broken windows and falling roofs, and far too full timetables. Especially in disadvantaged neighborhoods, young people feel like second-class citizens and feel their concerns are not taken seriously. A clear response to the protests has not been found by the government, and concrete promises have not been made either. Apart from the government, political factions within the government accuse it of failure and often support the demands of the young people, especially the student protests are politically instrumentalized. The government and the right-wing camp initially accused the French left-wing party La France Insoumise and its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon of deliberately inciting violent protests to sow chaos in the country ahead of the presidential election. The left-wing parties accused the government of trying to suppress the protests with a repressive use of police. The previous peak of the protests was nationwide demonstration marches on Tuesday, with 266,000 people reportedly participating in Paris and other major cities (Bildungsgewerkschaften speak of 450,000 participants). Meanwhile, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced on the morning of Wednesday that the use of tear gas by the police during student protests would be suspended. Such a grenade, fired by law enforcement personnel into a group of students, had amputated a hand of a 15-year-old boy on Monday in the northern French Lens. This led to growing indignation over the reckless behavior of the police and alleged police violence. Macron called for moderation in police actions in the context of a crisis meeting on Tuesday evening. He asked to \"show empathy\" and explain that police intervene only in cases of serious violence. Above all, it must be made clear that there is \"no reason for police intervention at all in peaceful demonstrations, including those of students in front of their schools.\" However, the police's appeal to Macron, who first entered the debate about handling student protests on Tuesday evening, did not meet much favor. On Wednesday, the police used tear gas against students and students again to clear blockades - such as in front of a high school in Marseille and also in front of the prestigious elite university Sciences Po in Paris, where Macron and many French top politicians studied. Students had erected barricades on the adjacent Boulevard Saint-Germain, an important traffic artery. The government fears that the protests could spread to other areas, possibly becoming a second Yellow Vest movement, which gripped France for a long time in 2019 due to a planned increase in fuel taxes and subsequent broader movement against high living costs and social injustice. The uncontrolled national debt makes dealing with the student protests particularly difficult for the government. At the end of the second quarter, it reached its highest level since 1946, amounting to nearly 3.6 trillion euros, a never-before-seen figure. Faced with these numbers, the government is struggling with a budget tightening exercise - additional billion-dollar expenditures for schools, as demanded, are difficult to implement.",
  "summary": "Nach den jüngsten Schulprotesten in Frankreich bleibt die Lage angespannt. Macron mahnt zu Mäßigung und fordert Einfühlungsvermögen bei Polizeieinsätzen. Doch die Sorge vor einer Ausweitung wächst.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}