French Students Resume School Blockades Amid Nationwide Strike Calls

French students resumed blockades of high schools and universities on Monday, November 2, following the autumn holidays. The protests, which began in September, target overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages, dilapidated buildings, and the cost-of-living crisis. Student leaders dismissed government plans to cap 10th-grade class sizes and overhaul the Parcoursup university admissions platform as insufficient.

Emmanuel Macron urged students to return to class, asserting that the youth have been heard. However, student organizers continued the disruptions, with some using garbage bins to block school entrances in Marseille. The unrest follows a Saturday protest involving 320,000 participants and 779 arrests, including a petrol bomb attack in Paris that injured a police officer and triggered an attempted murder probe.

The situation is escalating as the CGT and other trade unions call for a nationwide strike on Thursday to demand higher pay for civil servants and an increase in the minimum wage. While the Interior Ministry deployed 70,000 security personnel to manage the demonstrations, student leaders maintain that the government has provided almost nothing to address their core grievances.