Students block hundreds of schools in France and Belgium. What they are demanding and why the protest turned violent

Since 17 September, French secondary-school students have been blocking schools, and on Monday 5 October, according to franceinfo, 400 to 500 of roughly 3,700 lycées were fully or partially closed. The protests have been accompanied by violent incidents: according to figures from the prime minister’s office cited by franceinfo, 715 police officers and gendarmes, 215 students and 85 school staff have been injured since the movement began, while a 15-year-old boy in Lens lost an arm after a grenade exploded. Since 1 October, the wave has also reached Liège in Belgium, but students there are protesting a different issue from the one in France. franceinfo ↗ On Tuesday 6 October, the blockades became a nationwide march: according to the Interior Ministry, more than 250,000 people took to the streets (organisations put the figure at 450,000), unions joined for the first time and Macron convened a meeting at the Élysée. BFM TV ↗ Tagesspiegel ↗ On Wednesday 7 October, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez suspended the use of stun grenades after a 15-year-old boy in Lens lost an arm; IGPN is now conducting 18 investigations, and classes were suspended that morning in 528 schools, significantly fewer than the day before. BFM TV ↗ Libération ↗ BFM TV ↗ In the evening, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu addressed the public from Matignon. According to BFM TV, he said that law-enforcement forces had not been instructed to confront secondary-school students, that his government would listen to them and that it would present its first decisions only at the end of October. BFM TV ↗ BFM TV ↗ Unions have also called for a strike and demonstrations on Thursday. Le Figaro ↗

What is happening in France

A lycée is a French secondary school for students roughly aged 15 to 18. “Blocus” means that students block the entrance and prevent others from entering. The movement began on 17 September in the Paris region and, according to France24, spread from there to other cities. France24 ↗

Students have not made one single demand, but rather a list of complaints about conditions at school: teachers not being replaced, overcrowded classes, dilapidated buildings, long timetables and the stress of university selection through the Parcoursup platform. Students have summed it up with the phrases “lycée pourri” and “cantine dégueu”, meaning “rotten school” and “disgusting cafeteria”. According to Café pédagogique, protesters say: “Our struggle is dignified; we are fighting for our dignity.” Café pédagogique ↗

According to France24, organisers are calling for specific measures, such as replacing teachers who have been absent for a long time, filling vacant posts and renovating schools, and want to maintain the pressure until the autumn holiday, which begins on 17 October. France24 ↗ Education Minister Édouard Geffray acknowledges that demands concerning the running of schools are legitimate, but stresses: “Violence is not legitimate.” RTL ↗ In a letter dated 4 October, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked ministers to restore teaching wherever safety permits. France24 ↗

Tuesday 6 October: the movement’s third act

Tuesday’s “Act III” was the largest so far. According to the Interior Ministry, between 256,000 and 266,000 people took to the streets (sources differ), including 56,000 in Paris, while student and school organisations put the figure at 450,000. BFM TV ↗ Tagesschau ↗ BFM TV ↗ Unions, parents and teachers joined for the first time. Tagesspiegel ↗ According to Le Monde, the marches were mostly peaceful, but police, according to the Interior Ministry, arrested 488 people; 43 police officers and gendarmes were injured. Le Monde ↗ BFM TV ↗

The government is responding on several fronts. Macron convened a meeting on Tuesday evening with ministers, including Prime Minister Lecornu and Education Minister Geffray, while the German dpa news agency wrote of fears of a second Yellow Vest movement. BFM TV ↗ Tagesspiegel ↗ In the National Assembly, Lecornu promised that lycées would be given time this week for “internal democracy”, but school heads criticised this as an improvisation they had learned about without warning. Libération ↗ Another mobilisation has been announced for Thursday. Libération ↗

Wednesday 7 October: grenades suspended and the prime minister’s address

On Wednesday morning, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced that he was temporarily suspending the use of stun grenades “as part of the student movement”. BFM TV ↗ This came after a 15-year-old boy in Lens lost an arm. Le Monde explains that the grenade was an EF-SON type. Le Monde ↗ According to Nuñez, IGPN has been conducting 18 investigations since the movement began, with eight added most recently. BFM TV ↗ Libération ↗ According to BFM TV, the boy’s mother in Lens will file a criminal complaint: “They stole his life.” BFM TV ↗

The mobilisation has ebbed, but it has not ended. According to BFM TV, classes were suspended in 528 schools on Wednesday morning, significantly fewer than the previous day. BFM TV ↗ Education Minister Édouard Geffray said that 24 lycées had been set on fire or vandalised, that 215 students and 88 education workers had been injured, and that 30,000 students would be without classes for several weeks. BFM TV ↗ BFM TV ↗ BFM TV ↗ On Wednesday evening, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu addressed the lycées, fuel prices, the agricultural crisis and public finances from Matignon. BFM TV ↗ Le Figaro ↗ According to BFM TV, he said that “we have a duty to listen” to secondary-school students and that “law-enforcement forces have not been instructed to confront secondary-school students”. BFM TV ↗ He said their role was to protect people and property, enforce the law and allow access to schools, proportionately. In cases of serious injuries to young people, investigations should establish the circumstances transparently. BFM TV ↗ He did not announce any specific decisions, however: according to BFM TV, the government’s first decisions are to be presented at the end of October. BFM TV ↗ He also mentioned fuel prices: to reduce the price of diesel by 12 to 18 cents per litre, he will release 10 million barrels from reserves for three months, and the poorest households will receive an energy cheque from January. BFM TV ↗ Libération ↗ BFM TV ↗ The movement has also reached overseas territories: according to Ouest-France, blockades in Guadeloupe are intensifying, and two schools remained closed on Wednesday. Ouest-France ↗ For Thursday 8 October, the unions SNES-FSU, CGT, FO, Sud and Unsa called for a strike and demonstrations. Before the address, SNES-FSU general secretary Sophie Vénétitay demanded highly specific answers from the prime minister, such as scrapping the job cuts in the 2027 budget. Le Figaro ↗ The student organisation Les Lycéens! announced that afternoon that peaceful demonstrations would continue because students still did not feel sufficiently heard. BFM TV ↗

How the blockades turned violent

According to the Justice Ministry’s tally of 5 October, since the violence began police have detained 5,060 people in garde à vue, including 4,406 minors (87%). A total of 1,802 people are being prosecuted (319 adults and 1,483 minors), and 14 people have been placed in pre-trial detention. Ministerstvo spravodlivosti ↗ Schools have also suffered damage. Geffray speaks of 24 schools that were “set on fire or vandalised”. France24 ↗ Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin called on prosecutors to recover the damage from parents: “it is not the minor who pays, but the parents.” franceinfo ↗

The other side of the story is injuries to students. The police inspectorate IGPN has received 18 investigations already (there were ten on Tuesday). Libération ↗ They include a 16-year-old student from Tours who lost sight in one eye on 30 September; according to the local prosecutor, the injury is consistent with being shot with an LBD, a weapon firing rubber projectiles. There is also a 14-year-old boy from Saint-Ouen-l'Aumône whose teeth were knocked out, according to his lawyer, after he was hit by a tear-gas grenade launcher. ICI ↗ On Tuesday, prosecutors began proceedings against a police officer who, according to Die Zeit, allegedly fired a tear-gas grenade into a 14-year-old boy’s face; they found that the conditions for self-defence were not met. Die Zeit ↗

In Lens, the prefect described a group of 200 to 250 students throwing stones, firecrackers and mortar fireworks at police. The prosecutor from Béthune said that he was “not in a position to say formally” whether the student picked up the grenade or whether it had been thrown at him. franceinfo ↗ According to Mediapart, the boy from Lens had his left arm amputated after being hit by a surrounding grenade, while teachers and classmates speak of disproportionate police force. Mediapart ↗ Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez rejects claims that the police interventions were disproportionate. France24 ↗ On Wednesday, however, he suspended the use of stun grenades (see above). In Yvelines, a one-year-old child was taken to hospital after being hit by a mortar firework during a lycée blockade. Le Figaro ↗

Political dispute: who is to blame

Referring to intelligence services, the prime minister’s office accused La France insoumise and affiliated far-left groups of organising the movement, and spoke of “urban violence”. LCP ↗ The party rejects this and says the mobilisation was spontaneous. Jean-Luc Mélenchon accuses the government of having “ordered repression”, while Lecornu accuses the party of “irresponsibly raising the stakes” and “endangering students”. franceinfo ↗ According to an Odoxa-Backbone poll for Le Figaro, 62% of French people consider the student movement justified, but 61% believe that the LFI party “is not playing its role”. Odoxa ↗ The dispute on Tuesday also reached the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis, Bally Bagayoka, who repeatedly positioned himself between demonstrators and police in Paris, and Éric Ciotti called for his removal. Le Figaro ↗ Le Figaro ↗ According to Bosnia’s Klix.ba, US President Trump declared that “it is not about school, but Islam”, although the student complaints described by France24 and Café pédagogique concern teachers, classes and buildings. Klix.ba ↗ After the suspension of the grenades, communist Guillaume Roubaud-Quashie (PCF) said: “The police had to tear a child’s arm off for us to understand.” BFM TV ↗ Laure Lavalette of the RN, by contrast, said that “even if the demand is legitimate, the way of pursuing it certainly is not.” BFM TV ↗ After Marine Tondelier (EELV) spoke, she wrote on X that “the government’s strategy is clear: to buy time”. In her view, by postponing announcements until the end of October, Lecornu is counting on the movement fizzling out during the autumn holiday. Le Figaro ↗ According to BFM TV, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on X: “This must stop. The command must take control of the sadistic cowboys who are maiming our children.” BFM TV ↗

Belgium: a different dispute, the same form

In Belgium, education is administered not by the federal government but by the communities. French-language schools are governed by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, led by a coalition of MR and Les Engagés. Its prime minister is Elisabeth Degryse, and education is overseen by Valérie Glatigny. The aim is to achieve a deficit of 1.2 billion euros in 2029, so education must save 306 million euros, while 75 million euros is allocated to new policies. The measures are contained in a décret-programme adopted by the parliament of the French Community in June 2026. RTBF ↗

According to a ministerial statement from July, teachers in upper secondary education will have a basic workload of 22 rather than 20 teaching hours per week, without a corresponding pay rise. Komuniké ministerky ↗ According to Glatigny on 20 August, the plan to abolish “nomination” (a permanent civil-service position) and replace it with an open-ended contract has been suspended because it would increase the employer’s contributions from 5.26% to 23.62%. Télésambre ↗ From the 2026/2027 academic year, university tuition fees (minerval) will be charged at the full rate of 1,194 euros, although some students pay a lower rate or are exempt. UCLouvain ↗ Students and teachers had already protested against the cuts in June. VRT ↗ The wave from France gave the protest a new form: since Thursday 1 October, schools in and around Liège have been blocked, with students protesting against the decree, the higher minerval and the ending of the 12-euro annual TEC pass; banners accuse Minister Glatigny of “destroying education”. L'Avenir ↗ The pass is being abolished by a separate Walloon decree of 2 September 2026, and the new fares will apply from 1 February 2027. LETEC ↗

On 2 October, Glatigny condemned the violence and called for a return to classrooms: “Preventing students and teachers from entering classrooms, throwing projectiles at police or destroying school equipment is not an acceptable way to express disagreement.” She also warned against radical movements exploiting students. L'Avenir ↗ According to the evening tally, police in Liège recorded 30 arrests on 5 October, 23 administrative and seven judicial. Qu4tre ↗ School authorities, in agreement with Mayor Willy Demeyer, planned to reopen schools on Monday, but several remained inaccessible in the morning because of the blockades. L'Avenir ↗ On Tuesday evening, rioters in Liège attacked the courthouse with stones La Libre ↗ and, according to HLN, police arrested 33 people. HLN ↗ The mayor and police called on students to return to school on Wednesday. 7sur7 ↗ Figures for arrests in Liège differ by source: HLN reports 33 for Tuesday, La Libre around fifty and De Morgen more than one hundred in its live blog. La Libre ↗ De Morgen ↗

What they have in common and how they differ

The form is shared: blocked entrances, violence on the margins and students seeking better learning conditions. The difference lies in what they are protesting. In France, there is no single law that could simply be withdrawn. In Belgium, the protests concern several specific measures: the austerity decree, tuition fees and a separate decree on fares. The sources do not say whether changing them would end the protests more quickly.

Limits of this perspective

The figures come from ministries, the prime minister’s office and police, all parties to the dispute, and they change daily and vary by source. We verified the numbers of arrests in France directly in the Justice Ministry’s statement of 5 October. The Belgian measures have different dates of entry into force, and some are still changing. We do not know whether the grenade in Lens was picked up by the student or thrown at him. The claim about LFI’s role comes from the prime minister’s office and is denied by the party. We verified only statements by authorities and the party; we did not seek independent evidence. And we know the students’ own views mainly through the organisations calling the movement. Figures for 6 October differ: the Interior Ministry gives 256,000 (Tagesschau) or 266,000 (BFM TV), organisations give 450,000, and the figure of 488 arrests comes only from the Interior Ministry. The prime minister’s office puts the number of injured school workers at 85, while Education Minister Geffray said 88 on Wednesday. The suspension of stun grenades is temporary and applies only “as part of the student movement”; sources say nothing about a broader change in police procedures. We know the prime minister’s address indirectly, from articles by BFM TV and Le Figaro, not from the full text. These are statements, not decisions: the government has not yet announced specific measures for lycées, and “at the end of October” is not a date. The claim that the government is buying time comes from the opposition. BFM TV also says that the boy from Lens is 16, while franceinfo says 15. BFM TV ↗

What hotinfo is watching

*Photo: Lycée Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry in Créteil near Paris. Erwmat / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.*