--- title: "France’s school protests more than double in size, by the government’s own count" description: "The Interior Ministry counted 161,500 marchers on Tuesday and unions said 480,000. Macron’s answer is to ask for time and consultations" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-10-13T17:58:01Z modified: 2026-10-14T04:07:54Z url: https://rews.cc/a/france-s-school-protests-more-than-double-in-size-by-the-gov-eb0d53 language: en tags: ["politics", "education", "protests", "macron", "unions", "europe"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # France’s school protests more than double in size, by the government’s own count *The Interior Ministry counted 161,500 marchers on Tuesday and unions said 480,000. Macron’s answer is to ask for time and consultations* By Nate Ledger · October 13, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/france-s-school-protests-more-than-double-in-size-by-the-gov-eb0d53 ## In brief - The Interior Ministry counted 161,500 protesters on Tuesday, up from 71,500 last Thursday; unions put turnout at 480,000 - The Education Ministry reported 214 schools closed; a university union said 90% of universities shut in solidarity - Students rejected a government offer of 3,000 substitute teachers for the 114 worst-hit schools - Police have opened 34 investigations into alleged violence against demonstrators; 147 teaching staff have been injured - Macron said the issues deserve time and consultation as his government struggles to pass a cost-cutting budget On Tuesday, tens of thousands of people marched across France in support of the high school students who have spent the past month blockading their own schools. As [AFP’s photo report for Al Jazeera](https://aljazeera.com/gallery/2026/10/13/photos-french-students-continue-to-protest-over-run-down-schools) noted, the crowd came with two numbers attached. The Interior Ministry said 161,500. The unions that helped organise the rallies said 480,000. I don’t think the gap between those two is the interesting part. It is a factor of about three, and it is what you get when one side wants the number big and the other wants it small. The interesting part is the ministry’s own trend. At the previous nationwide day of protest, last Thursday, it counted 71,500. Its own figure for Tuesday is about 2.26 times that. The government would very much like these protests to be small, and it is the one telling you they more than doubled in five days. You can treat its number as a floor. Paris held two marches, which the ministry put at 41,500 people, roughly a quarter of its national total. Police said thousands also marched in Nantes, Lyon, Lens, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille. According to [France 24](https://www.france24.com/en/france/20261013-tens-of-thousands-rally-across-france-as-high-school-protests-gather-strength), the Education Ministry reported 214 schools closed, most of them high schools, and the university union l’Union Etudiante said 90% of universities had shut in solidarity. Earlier this month the closures had already [reached 400 high schools](https://rews.cc/a/french-student-protests-close-400-high-schools-as-clashes-an-003b5f). ![A dense crowd carrying red flags marches along a Paris riverside street toward a gated building in a grainy black-and-white scene.](https://rews.cc/img/1002e49548db044e156065d2d0f751e0ed2069fe.webp) ## The offer The demands are not exotic. The movement began last month with lycée students blocking school entrances to demand better classroom conditions: teachers who don’t turn up, buildings that are falling apart, timetables that are overcrowded. After last week’s protests the government offered 3,000 substitute teachers for the 114 worst-hit schools. That works out to about 26 substitutes per school, which is a real number of people. It also leaves several thousand other schools with nothing, and the students rejected it. It came on top of an earlier government package of [diesel and a consultation](https://rews.cc/a/france-s-pupils-return-to-the-barricades-as-lecornu-offers-d-13a713). So they kept marching. What brought new people out on Tuesday was less the classrooms than the policing, which many see as heavy-handed. In earlier protests one teenager lost a hand after picking up a police stun grenade. Another lost an eye. A third lost teeth when an officer fired a tear gas canister into his face. Police have opened 34 internal investigations into alleged violence against demonstrators, although France 24’s [live coverage](https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20261013-live-france-braces-for-fresh-nationwide-protests-over-school-conditions) gave the number as 36 investigations by the police watchdog. The Education Ministry says 147 teaching staff have been hurt in the protests. ![A red backpack hangs from a school chair beside a desk and closed book, while a large helmeted figure’s shadow stretches across the cracked floor.](https://rews.cc/img/2550373dca64e4ae33ef936a510ead05e0543f7f.webp) Most of Tuesday’s rallies were peaceful. On the edges of one Paris march, cars were set on fire and masked youths threw objects and tried to put up barricades, and police answered with tear gas. Tear gas was used in Lyon too. [Euronews reported](https://www.euronews.com/2026/10/13/violence-in-paris-as-tens-of-thousands-turn-out-for-student-protests-across-france) that bottles, fireworks and stones were thrown at police at Place Vauban, next to Les Invalides, and that officers used water cannon. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 11 police officers were taken to hospital after the Paris clashes. ## Time On Monday, President Emmanuel Macron urged protesters to show restraint, saying the issues “deserve time, consultations, discussion and respect.” That is a reasonable sentence, and it also describes a familiar move. A consultation turns a demand for money now into a process that ends later. If later comes after the anger has faded, the process has done its job. The trouble is that Macron does not have much later left. He is in his second and final term, and France picks his successor in six months. The students also seem to have spotted the move. “Those who think the anger will disappear with the holidays just don’t get it,” Mariolino, 16, told France 24 in Nantes. In Brest, a student named Naouel said: “We are continuing the blockades. We are not budging.” ![A glass hourglass containing a twisting red ribbon and tangled red knot stands on a polished conference table in a dark, ornate room.](https://rews.cc/img/6b902d7225e4903948681aed9845b667c51e1875.webp) Then there is the money, which is the whole problem. Macron’s centrist government is struggling to get a cost-cutting budget through parliament, and worsening debt has unsettled the bond market. Imagine, purely as an illustration, that you are the minister in charge of that budget. Your job is to convince bond investors that France will spend less. Meanwhile hundreds of thousands of people (or 161,500, if you prefer your own count) are in the street asking you to spend more on teachers and buildings. Whatever you hand the students, the bond market sees it too. That probably explains why the offer came as 3,000 substitutes for 114 schools and not as a programme to repair every school. The street is not making it easier. National demonstrations over the rising cost of living are planned for Saturday, and unions and student groups expect the two movements to merge. The far-left France Unbowed party has backed the school protests, and its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon was seen in the Paris crowds. Greta Thunberg joined a march in the suburb of Saint-Denis, where she said “our future is being robbed.” [Axios](https://www.axios.com/2026/10/13/france-student-protests-paris-police-clashes) places France within a wider and largely unconnected wave of education protests across Europe over crowded classrooms, teacher shortages, cuts to university funding and the rising cost of education. Macron asked for time. The students’ complaint, if you go back to the list, is that their timetables are already overcrowded.