Hundreds of French high schools were shut on Tuesday as teacher unions joined a student-led movement demanding more money for education that has spread across the country and sometimes turned violent.

Around 256,000 people were taking part in demonstrations, including 56,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry, with police using tear gas to disperse crowds in some locations.

The protests, calling for smaller class sizes, building renovations and a reform of the system that allocates university slots, started in the Paris region in September before unexpectedly gaining steam last week.

Since they began, some 215 pupils have been injured, as well as 85 educators — including 34 principals and deputies — and 715 police officers, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told lawmakers in the National Assembly.

“For several days now, extreme violence has knocked on the doors of our high schools,” he said in a post on X. “This violence must be condemned unconditionally.”

While not directly linked to worries over the country’s political and fiscal future that have sparked a sharp selloff in financial assets over the past few months, the student protests bring with them a sense of generational upheaval and highlight the difficulty the government faces in trying to rein in public spending while also providing all of the core services its citizens demand.

Nearly 900 high schools — or lycées — were closed out of about 3,700, Agence France-Presse reported, citing the Education Ministry. An Odoxa poll for daily Le Figaro published on Thursday showed that 62% of French people support the student mobilization.

At Paris’s Place de la République, site of the biggest protest, demonstrators atop trucks chanted slogans such as “cash for our high schools, money for teachers” to the sound of techno music.

In an effort to ease tensions, Lecornu sent a letter on Sunday to his ministers, calling on them to make proposals on the issues raised by the students. The letter noted that the government’s initial budget proposal contains an increase of €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) next year for education.

He said on Tuesday that classes would be suspended for the rest of the week to enable political discussions to take place within high schools.

Tensions on markets

Yet there’s little room for costly reforms. The unrest comes against a backdrop of heightened scrutiny in financial markets as investors dump French assets on concerns over a bloated budget deficit and political instability.

The government is trying to get parliamentary backing to sharply restrain public spending to pare the fiscal shortfall to 5% of economic output in 2027 — the target it missed this year. But opposition groups who have twice toppled prime ministers over budget plans in the last two years are reluctant to compromise with less than seven months until presidential elections.

On Tuesday, far-right French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen proposed a sharp deficit reduction and called on the European Central Bank to intervene to bring down surging debt costs as she seeks to assure investors of her financial credentials ahead of the election next year.

Le Pen’s planned narrowing of the deficit would far outstrip any effort France has made in the recent past and has drawn criticism from her opponents running for president. Far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon wrote on social media that Le Pen was trying to win the approval of speculators and that her plan would “paralyze the economy and worsen the deficit and debt.”

The student unrest adds to a wider cost-of-living crisis in the country, linked to a surge in fuel prices sparked by global conflicts. Fishermen blockaded several ports in late September. Meanwhile, calls are multiplying on social media to resume the Yellow Vest protests, a grassroots movement that started in 2018 and later morphed into nationwide riots.

“We’re not that worried about having debt or higher borrowing costs because most countries are in a similar situation,” said Christophe, who took a half-day off from his job as a movie-set decorator to attend the demonstration in Paris with his 16-year-old daughter, Eleonore, and her friends.

“The elections have to bring new people who will impose taxes on the ultra rich and big companies,” he added. “We cannot afford to stay in this situation.”

Another day of general protests is planned for Oct. 17, touted by Mélenchon’s France Unbowed party. And five unions have called for a nationwide day of strikes on Nov. 5 in support of higher pay, public services, jobs and industry.

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With assistance from Angelina Rascouet.

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