More than half a million people hit the streets on October 17, as protests swept across the country.
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protests → hit → country
As the administration greeted the protesters with a large deployment of riot police, peaceful demonstrations were engulfed by violence in many places.
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demonstrations → greet → places
Arsonists set fire to the Lyon tourist office and burnt down the Limoges City Hall, a historic municipal building.
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Arsonists → set → Hall
Protesters stormed the townhall in Marseille and attacked the prefect’s residence in Bordeaux.
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Protesters → storm → Bordeaux
In Paris’s Place de la Republique, protesting youth who clashed with the police torched vehicles and looted shops.
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who → protest → shops
Luxury retailers such as Louis Vuitton, Hermes, Dior and Galeries Lafayette suffered millions of dollars in losses as their stores were ransacked.
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stores → suffer → losses
Police arrested or detained more than 6,000 people, including hundreds of minors.
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Police → arrest → minors
Editorial | Fall of the centre: on the public discontent in France
With the police outnumbered and unable to protect public and private property, several cities resorted to full or partial curfews.
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cities → protect → curfews
Government officials have blamed the unrest on “seditionists from far-left fringe groups”.
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officials → blame → groups
They have accused La France Insoumise, or LFI (France Unbowed), the leftwing political party launched by veteran politician Jean-Luc Melenchon (75), of inciting the protests with the aim of extracting political mileage ahead of the presidential elections in April 2027.
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They → accuse → April
In a televised address to the nation, President Emmanuel Macron took a hard stance on the protests and rioting, stating: “Nothing justifies it, nothing explains it, nothing excuses it.”
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nothing → televise → it
The protesters, however, have refused to back down.
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protesters → refuse → ?
They issued a nationwide call to hit the streets again on Saturday, October 24.
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They → issue → Saturday
The Macron administration, taken by surprise on October 17, responded by deploying around 70,000 police across the country, with the Interior Minister Laurent Nunez making it clear that the government would be “extremely” firm and not tolerate anything.”
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government → take → anything
ALSO WATCH Watch:
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WATCH → watch → ?
France imposes curfew as school protests turn violent | Above the Fold | Oct 20, 2026
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protests → impose → Fold
The protests, like other similar upsurges seen in recent times across the world, including in India, were led by youth angered by an education system failing to meet their needs.
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protests → see → needs
In the case of France, the spark was lit on September 17 in a high school named Lycee Saint-Exupery in the Parisian suburb of Creteil.
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spark → light → Creteil
Students, fed up with the dilapidated school infrastructure – leaking roofs, clogged toilets, cockroach infestation, overcrowded classrooms with no air-conditioning leading to cases of heat stress – and shortage of nurses and teaching staff, decided to vent their frustration by blockading the school entrance.
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Students → feed → entrance
Thanks to social media, this singular action by a bunch of angry teens in one school sparked a proliferation of copycat school blockades.
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action → spark → blockades
In a matter of weeks, more than 600 schools and dozens of universities joined the movement, which began to resonate with the broader public that saw their demands as fully justified.
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that → join → demands
‘Four riot police for one student/One Professor for thirty-five’ read one placard, a reference to the teacher shortage and over-sized classrooms in French schools.
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placard → read → schools
A combination of poor pay, little to no prospects for growth, and tough working conditions has seen a steady stream of teachers moving out of the profession altogether.
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teachers → see → profession
At the same time, the government, instead of replacing the exiting staff, has been happy to shut down the vacancies, with more than 4,000 teaching positions closed in 2026 alone.
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positions → replace → 2026
Adding to the students’ frustration over the paucity of teachers were the successive heat waves in France this year, which exposed the rundown school buildings as totally unsuitable for the vagaries of climate change.
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which → add → change
Hundreds of schools were forced to stay closed on the hottest days and critical school-leaving exams had to be postponed.
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exams → force → days
And yet, the Macron administration has been slow to act when it comes to investing in renovation of this infrastructure.
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it → act → infrastructure
Given that the crisis is more acute in public schools, there is also a growing perception that Mr. Macron and his ministers are clueless about the crisis in France’s education system because they are themselves products of expensive private schools.
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they → give → schools
The October 17 mobilisation has made it clear that a movement initiated by high schoolers has managed to forge alliances with adults across social sections.
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movement → make → sections
What has been described as a “cost of living” crisis, a moniker typically associated with rising fuel costs, unaffordable rents, housing crisis, and increasing precarity of the working classes, is a direct outcome of neoliberal policy choices made by Mr. Macron since he came to power in 2017.
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he → describe → 2017
From tax cuts for the wealthier households, to privatisation of profit-making state assets such as the national lottery, slashing of corporate income tax from 33.5% to 25%, labour reforms, pension reforms and unemployment insurance reforms all taken together had the inevitable outcome of privatising gains while socialising costs.
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reforms → make → costs
Not surprisingly, the by now familiar fall-out of sustained neoliberal policies – stagnant wages, growing inequality, a steady shrinkage in public expenditure as profits are cornered by a tiny elite – have come home to roost in the form of this unrest.
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profits → grow → unrest
The crisis induced by neoliberalism has left France under a mountain of public debt, which has ballooned to more than $4 trillion, or nearly 120% of its GDP.
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which → induce → GDP
The sell-off in French sovereign bonds has pushed up its borrowing costs to 5%, leaving little fiscal room for Mr. Macron to respond meaningfully to his citizens’ demands.
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Macron → push → demands
Mr. Macron, therefore, appears to have settled on a strategy of police intimidation and blaming the far-left, in the hope that the simmering discontent subsides by the time the Presidential elections come around.
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elections → appear → time
The right-left divide
On the other hand, the far-right Rassemblement National (RN or National Rally), led by Marine Le Pen, who finished second in the 2022 presidential race, is playing on Mr. Macron’s seeming “lack of authority” and “inability” to secure the streets by promising to restore law and order of elected to power.
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who → lead → power
At the same time, Ms. Le Pen has accused the leftwing LFI of both encouraging and legitimising the disorder.
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Pen → accuse → disorder
However, the politician best placed to ride the current wave of unrest may well be Mr. Melenchon.
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politician → place → unrest
His FLI, over the years, has become adept at amplifying the concerns and demands of the students and the youth, and many FLI leaders actively joined the students at the barricades.
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leaders → become → barricades
But most high schoolers are too young to vote, and of all the age groups, the younger voters (18-34) have traditionally recorded some of the lowest turnouts in French Presidential elections.
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voters → vote → elections
…and 1 more, not listed.
The Aporia
