Student protests over school conditions in France have turned increasingly violent, spreading from Paris to Marseille, Strasbourg, Tours, Nantes, Toulouse and Lille and resulting in more than 5,000 arrests this week, according to Reuters.
The demonstrations began late last month in Paris’s poorer suburbs, with students objecting to overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, long school days and what they described as deteriorating conditions. Protesters blamed the government for failing to invest adequately in education.
The unrest intensified after the French government unveiled its 2027 budget on Thursday, which proposed raising education spending by only 1.7%, excluding teacher pensions, an increase below the rate of inflation, Reuters reported.
What began as peaceful protests has since escalated into arson, vandalism, thrown objects and assaults, prompting police to respond with tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 400 schools remained closed as of Friday.
According to Euronews, at least 65 school staff members, including 40 principals, have been injured since the unrest began, along with roughly 170 students. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said more than 100 high schools have suffered what he called “severe damage.”
Hard-left party accused of role in unrest
French intelligence agencies told a government crisis meeting Thursday that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the hard-left France Unbowed Party, known as LFI, Reuters reported Friday. LFI has denied the allegations, accusing President Emmanuel Macron’s government of politicizing the protests ahead of France’s 2027 presidential election.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, senior envoy to Europe at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital on Thursday that the unrest began with legitimate concerns but has since taken a darker turn.
“The students’ grievances about missing teachers and deteriorating schools were real at first,” Rodan-Benzaquen said. “But dousing a principal in gasoline and attacking firefighters are acts of extreme violence. What makes this politically significant is the effort to turn frustration over schools into a much broader confrontation with the government.”
American commentary draws a comparison
The French unrest has also drawn commentary from American political voices. Speaking from New York City on Saturday, “The Big Weekend Show” co-host Tomi Lahren described the situation as a warning for the United States.
“I would also say as we’re sitting here in beautiful New York City, this is a cautionary tale,” Lahren said. “This is something we’re learning from Europe, and we would be wise to learn from Europe. They decided they wanted to have open borders. They decided they wanted diversity as their strength, and of course, Joe Biden tried that for four years. We’re undoing that currently.”
Lahren argued that when large numbers of people are allowed into a country and “leech off of your system,” native residents eventually grow upset, sometimes channeling that anger in destructive ways. “They end up lighting things on fire, which I think is stupid no matter what you’re angry with, but it’s no doubt these countries that say we’re going to be a global home for everybody, they end up paying the price, and it’s usually the native Frenchmen, or whenever they are that end up paying the highest price,” she said.
