France is facing a growing wave of unrest as high school students protest for better-resourced schools, clashing with police forces accused of using excessive force to suppress demonstrations.
The protests, which have spread across the country in recent weeks, have led to mass arrests, hundreds of injuries and mounting criticism of the government’s handling of public dissent.
The confrontations have also exposed tensions within the police, with some officers and their unions accusing the state of putting them in dangerous situations without adequate equipment or clear instructions.
For President Emmanuel Macron, who is due to leave office in May, the unrest is an unwelcome end to nearly a decade in power marked by repeated protest movements and disputes over the use of force against demonstrators.
The latest demonstrations have drawn particular scrutiny because so many of those arrested are teenagers, some of whom have suffered life-changing injuries from weapons used by riot police.
The protests have also attracted public sympathy as France grapples with record poverty and mounting public debt, with students demanding better-funded schools, particularly in disadvantaged suburbs of Paris and other cities.
Yet the demonstrations have also provided cover for violent groups that police say are exploiting the crowds to attack officers, set fires and damage property.
According to government figures, more than 900 police officers and nearly 150 teachers and other school employees have been injured during the unrest. Police say demonstrators have thrown rocks, fireworks and other projectiles at officers, turning some gatherings into violent confrontations.
The competing accounts have intensified a national debate over how France should balance the right to protest with public safety, and whether its security forces are equipped and trained to manage increasingly volatile demonstrations.
Walid Hrar, a police officer and union representative in Paris’ northern suburbs, said France’s long tradition of revolution and civil disobedience helps explain why protests can escalate so quickly.
"This is the country of the French Revolution. Everyone boasts about it, in fact. Some political parties don’t hesitate to say that we need to disobey the law. That’s what Robespierre and other revolutionaries taught us in 1789,” he said.
"France always tends to react rather than anticipate,” he added. "In other words, we’re always going to extremes.”
The response by security forces has become a central point of contention, particularly their use of so-called less-lethal weapons, including grenades, projectile launchers, tear gas and water cannons. Some officers also use riot shields fitted with powerful strobe lights to control crowds.
Critics argue that the deployment of these weapons, combined with inadequate training and poor equipment, increases the risk of serious injuries for both protesters and police.
Jean-Marie Godard, an author who specializes in French policing, said officers were being sent into volatile demonstrations without sufficient preparation.
"We’re sending poorly equipped, untrained public security police officers to violent demonstrations who are likely to become agitated very quickly out of anger and fear,” he said.
Hrar said some officers assigned to crowd-control duties lacked specialized training and protective equipment. He cited uniforms that were not flame-resistant, worn-out helmets and shields unsuitable for the conditions.
"We send them in because we need the manpower,” he said.
He also said officers who lack authorization to use certain riot-control projectiles and grenades can struggle to keep attackers at a safe distance, forcing them into direct physical confrontations.
"So unfortunately we make do,” Hrar said. "You’ll inevitably end up in direct physical confrontation. When that happens, there are injuries on both sides.”
The police union Alliance announced this week that it would file a legal complaint against the state, accusing authorities of endangering officers through unclear and contradictory instructions.
The union said officers had been left "isolated, betrayed, abandoned, exposed to violence."
The complaint adds to mounting pressure on the government over its management of the unrest, with officers arguing that authorities have failed to provide the resources and operational guidance needed to keep demonstrations under control.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said security forces had used crowd-control weapons at least 18,000 times during the protests, primarily smoke and tear gas, but also projectiles and grenades.
One of the weapons was a launcher-fired grenade that produces a deafening blast. Nunez said it had been used about 40 times before he suspended its deployment against high school students after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
The minister defended the use of crowd-control equipment, saying officers deployed it when necessary and in proportion to the threat.
"All this equipment, all these forces, all these intermediate weapons, are used whenever necessary, with proportionality, to mark an escalation of the response, to keep people at a distance or sometimes to put them out of action,” he said.
Nunez maintained that the rules governing the use of projectiles were strict and clearly defined.
"We avoid everything above the neck,” he said.
But investigations into alleged police misconduct have raised questions about whether those safeguards are being followed in practice.
An officer suspected of firing a projectile that partially blinded a 16-year-old was charged this week with aggravated violence.
The case was among 36 investigations into alleged police misconduct reported by Nunez as of Tuesday. Four concerned injuries described as mutilating, while six involved significant injuries. Other investigations involved alleged beatings, insults and suspected sexual assaults, including a case in which an officer was accused of attempting to drown a protester.
France has more than 250,000 police officers and gendarmes, but the scale of its security apparatus has not prevented recurring confrontations between law enforcement and protesters.
Sebastian Roche, a policing specialist at France’s National Center for Scientific Research, said the government’s political assessment of a protest movement often determines how security forces respond.
He pointed to differences in the treatment of high school students and farmers, who have used road blockades, fires and manure dumped on government buildings to press their demands. Farmers wield considerable political influence in France, Roche said, and have sometimes faced a more accommodating response from authorities.
"It’s the political definition of the movement that defines the police response,” he said.
That distinction has fueled criticism that the state applies different standards of force depending on who is protesting and how politically influential the demonstrators are.
Public attitudes toward the police have also shifted, partly because of the constant circulation of videos showing officers confronting demonstrators, Hrar said.
He recalled how police officers were widely praised for their bravery during the terrorist attacks in France in 2015, a period when their role in protecting the public drew broad recognition.
"When you bombard people every single day with images of police intervening with batons, shields and tear gas, you’re inevitably going to create a negative impression,” he said.