A student campaign over classroom conditions has grown into wider protests over living costs. Laurent Cipriani/PA
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Protests over school conditions and living costs have been marred by riots and looting, with around 2,400 arrests reported by Sunday night.
HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people took to the streets across France on Saturday to protest over rising living costs and struggling public services.
The demonstrations were accompanied by serious violence in several cities, with shops looted and public buildings set alight. In the city of Limoges, a fire devastated the historic town hall.
President Emmanuel Macron is now facing pressure, both over the grievances behind the protests and the authorities’ handling of the weekend of disorder.
This morning, he rejected interior minister Laurent Nuñez’s offer to resign.
What started all this?
The latest demonstrations grew out of a student protest movement that began in September over conditions in French schools.
The movement began at one school, Lycée Saint-Exupéry in the Paris suburb of Créteil, where teachers protested over staffing shortages on 17 September.
Pupils began blockading the school the following day. According to reporting by Le Monde, classes later resumed, but concerns remained, including the absence of a school nurse.
Within two weeks, the movement had spread to hundreds of secondary schools and dozens of universities, drawing support from parents, teachers and trade unions.
Pupils nationwide have been demanding action on teacher shortages, lessons left uncovered and buildings in need of urgent repairs.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said initial proposals on education reform would be published by the end of October. Student and teaching organisations argued that the government was not responding quickly enough.
Saturday’s protests brought that education campaign together with wider anger over living costs, attracting trade unionists and supporters of the ‘yellow vest’ movement.
So what are people asking for?
There is no single demand or organisation representing everyone involved.
Students want better learning conditions. The CGT, one of France’s major union confederations, is calling for higher wages, pensions and welfare payments, as well as greater taxation of wealth.
The union also opposes the government’s budget plans, arguing that they will further squeeze public services while households struggle to afford essentials.
For the yellow vest activists who have also joined the mobilisation, their movement originally emerged in 2018 and became associated with broad opposition to economic inequality.
How big were the protests, and where did violence break out?
The French interior ministry estimated that 550,000 people demonstrated nationwide on Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris. The CGT gave a higher national estimate of 800,000.
The disorder was not confined to the capital. Authorities reported attacks on shops and public buildings in Marseille, Lyon, Avignon and Grenoble, while looting was also reported in Bordeaux, Nice and Strasbourg.
In Lyon, a tourist office was set alight. In Limoges, the 19th-century town hall was devastated by fire.
Le beffroi de la mairie de Limoges, en flammes, s'est effondré https://t.co/tu9UBPS7iI
— BFM (@BFMTV) October 17, 2026
The Retail and Trade Federation estimated that about 1,500 businesses had been damaged across the country.
How did demonstrations become riots?
There’s no single established explanation for every incident, and the handling of the protests is now the subject of political dispute in France.
Reporting from Saturday described peaceful crowds marching alongside scenes of confrontation, with police struggling to contain violent groups.
The government has blamed groups it describes as “ultra-left” for instigating disorder.
Police used tear gas, batons and water cannon in several cities.
Union leaders have also criticised policing.
The CGT says officers fired a crowd-control grenade towards the front of a peaceful union procession in Toulouse.
The distinction is important, as people attending demonstrations were not necessarily involved in rioting or looting.
Have people been arrested or injured?
Authorities reported roughly 2,400 arrests by Sunday, while the interior ministry said about 1,000 officers had been injured. Demonstrators have also suffered injuries.
A 17-year-old lost a hand in an incident involving a crowd-control grenade in Saint-Étienne.
One person died during the main march in Paris, but officials said the death was health-related and not linked to the violence.
The arrest and injury figures are provisional, and both the number of arrests and injured are expected to rise.
What are Macron and his government saying?
Macron condemned the violence in a televised address on Sunday, while distinguishing protesters with legitimate demands from those responsible for destruction.
“Those who looted will have to pay back for the damage, and those who sought to bring down the Republic will be held accountable,” Macron said in a televised address to the nation.
Nuñez acknowledged that the deployment of 60,000 police and other security personnel on Saturday had not been enough to control violent crowds in some cities.
After refusing his resignation, Macron instructed him to tackle barricades and looting and explain failures in intelligence and planning.
Lecornu has said the government will not be intimidated by violence.
What are unions and opposition politicians saying?
CGT leader Sophie Binet said the union condemned the damage because it undermines protesters’ demands.
“What we would have liked to hear in its intervention is also a condemnation of the law enforcement strategy which led to this situation,” Binet said.
She criticised Macron for failing to announce concrete measures on living costs, public services and young people’s concerns, and argued that the focus on destruction has crowded out discussion of why so many people marched.
On the political left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused the authorities of inflaming tensions.
Elsewhere, far-right National Rally figure Marine Le Pen accused Mélenchon’s party of legitimising violence.
Piller, saccager, détruire, attaquer les forces de l’ordre : les émeutiers ont de nouveau pourri les manifestations du 17 octobre pour la défense du pouvoir d’achat. Les revendications sociales légitimes ont une nouvelle fois été prises en otage par l’extrême gauche et les discours des députés de Jean-Luc Mélenchon qui, en légitimant la violence, en considérant l’ordre comme une oppression et le désordre comme un droit, cherchent à précipiter le pays dans le chaos. Face à cette stratégie incendiaire, les Français qui n’en peuvent plus d’être pris en tenaille entre l’austérité et le matraquage fiscal du pouvoir et les activistes de l’insurrection doivent encore tenir quelques mois. Nous les libérerons des politiques toxiques macronistes et les protégerons de la violence de l’extrême gauche.
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) October 17, 2026
Mélenchon, who backed the demonstrations, urged protesters to avoid looting, and accused Macron of “playing with fire”.
“By counting on the situation to fester, you’ve only succeeded in uniting all of the youth and the labour unions,” Mélenchon wrote on social media.
What happens next?
Lecornu is due to chair a crisis meeting today to assess damage to businesses and public property and organise assistance.
Macron has also asked him to convene political parties, professional organisations and unions as the government seeks a response to the crisis.
Meanwhile, the protest movement is continuing, and the CGT has called for further peaceful mobilisation, with a nationwide day of strikes and demonstrations planned for 5 November.
Additional reporting from AFP