France's student protests roll on: 410,000 march in a day demanding more spending on education and social services

The student-led protests in France did not pause over the weekend. Young people took to the streets across the country demanding better education facilities, relief from the rising cost of living and a secure future. According to France's interior ministry, 410,000 people protested nationwide on Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris alone.

The protests began last month, in mid-September. High school students first blockaded campuses over overcrowded classrooms — often 32 to 35 pupils per room — teacher absences that went unreplaced, and dilapidated building infrastructure. From there, the movement gradually spread across the whole country.

Protesters have waved placards reading 'We have a future to build, not to endure', as they expressed frustration over shrinking public resources and state investment.

Teachers have also joined the students on the streets, protesting over low salaries. According to the OECD's Education at a Glance 2026 report, a school teacher in France earns a gross salary of 41,968 euros ($46,900) a year, compared with 69,453 euros ($77,700) for their counterparts in Germany. Social taxes, high pension contributions and the rising cost of living eat further into their monthly income, teachers say.

What started as a localised strike over school resources has since drawn in trade unions as well as civil servants, and the protests have evolved into a broader economic and political crisis. Behind it lies the government's proposed 54-billion-euro ($60bn) package of cost-cutting and tax measures for the 2027 budget, which includes civil servant salary freezes.

Students and young people fear bearing the brunt of public spending reductions amid poverty rates at a multidecade high and rising costs of living.

Amine Snoussi, a journalist for Le Media TV and a former parliamentary assistant at the French National Assembly, told Al Jazeera that the condition of public high schools is dire because government money is being spent elsewhere. 'Students are studying in cold, dirty buildings, some of them infested with rats. In some schools, absent teachers haven't been replaced for over six months. And all of this is happening while thousands of teaching jobs are being cut, and while public money keeps flowing to private schools. That's what lit the fuse,' he said.

The government has responded to the mass protests by imposing curfews and deploying police across the country to crack down on protesters. President Emmanuel Macron has blamed ultra-left groups for trying to 'bring down the Republic' and threatened accountability for those involved in violence.

On Friday, President Macron met representatives of the student movement for the first time since the protests began. But the meeting failed to defuse tensions, with student representatives calling for further mobilisation until the government presents concrete actions.

On Monday, during a visit to Marseille, Macron said he has 'asked the government to address the legitimate demands at the root of this protest movement'. According to French media reports, the government is also expected to announce changes to Parcoursup, France's national online university admissions platform.

Analysts say the government is struggling to address students' demands because of a severe fiscal crisis and planned budget cuts, which have also led to a drop in the country's education budget. According to data published by French economist Lucas Chancel, co-director of the World Inequality Lab, the public budget for higher education, student life and research — per student and adjusted for inflation — has decreased by 20 percent since 2017.

The government has defended the budget cuts. In an address to the nation on October 7, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu acknowledged that 'the anger among young people didn't come out of nowhere' and promised the government would present a plan to address the crisis by the end of October. The prime minister has also asked his ministers to check spending, as France's national debt has ballooned to about 3.6 trillion euros ($4 trillion), equivalent to 119 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP).

Of greater concern to markets than the total debt, however, is France's growing deficit, which is expected to reach 5.4 percent of GDP in 2026 — far above the European Union average of just more than 3 percent. In a report, economist Thomas Piketty noted that while public debt has increased, the country's private wealth has also grown from 300 percent to 600 percent of GDP, with extreme concentration among the wealthiest financial fortunes. 'In other words, France has never been richer. The problem to solve is simply one of distribution,' he added. According to a January 2026 review by the French economic policy think tank OFCE, people aged 60 and older form a quarter of the population but own 60 percent of the country's wealth.