France gripped by widespread protests as teachers and firefighters strike and high school students take to the streets

Thousands of citizens gathered in Paris and several other French cities as the country experienced a national strike by teachers and firefighters. High school students also took part in the demonstrations, demanding improved conditions in educational institutions.

In some areas, groups of teenagers set fire to rubbish bins. They voiced their dissatisfaction with school schedules, overcrowded classrooms and a lack of teaching staff. Their protests also highlighted high temperatures in classrooms following the exceptional heatwave this summer.

The movement began in the Île-de-France region, in French secondary schools known as lycées, where the final years of pre-university education are taught. Education authorities announced that around 10 schools were blocked during the day.

The protests later spread to other cities across the country, including Lille in the north, Marseille in the south and Bordeaux in the west. The high school students’ mobilization coincided with trade unions’ call for a nationwide day of protests and strikes against the draft budget of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.

Trade union leaders said that public anger had reached extraordinary levels. They called on the government to consider the protesters’ demands and revise the draft budget, which they described as “dangerous” and which, they said, was steering France toward “a collision with a recession wall at 200 kilometers per hour.”