French Education Crisis: 70,000 Police Deployed as Student Protests Intensify
Macron's government has mobilized a massive police force to manage student unrest, a response that critics say masks a 20% drop in per-student spending since 2017.
By Kaito Sokolov ·
The French government has deployed 70,000 police officers to manage a nationwide student protest movement.
President Emmanuel Macron announced this deployment as a security measure, pledging to ban further demonstrations and accusing the far left of seeking to destabilize the republic.
Police custody numbers have surged since the protests began in September. By October 14, authorities had detained 7,950 people, with 85 percent of those being minors. Another 2,700 were taken into custody after the October 17 demonstrations, and police made an additional 1,000 arrests the following day.
The scale of the crackdown marks one of the most heavily repressed protest movements of the current century. This heavy security presence contrasts with the government's public stance, which frames the unrest as a series of riots rather than a response to structural economic issues.
Student leaders argue that the mobilization stems from deteriorating living conditions and educational infrastructure. Poverty rates in France have reached their highest levels since the 1990s, with 9.8 million people living below the official poverty line. According to Oxfam, 53 French billionaires now own as much wealth as nearly half of the population.
The educational sector shows clear signs of financial strain. In Mayotte, the Cite du Nord secondary school, built for 900 students, now houses 2,300 pupils in cramped classrooms with water supply failures. In Parisian suburbs, schools in Sevran, Pantin, and Bagnolet have reported issues including mold, unusable toilets, and unsafe water, with some complaints dating back to 2024.
Macron met with 20 students on Friday and promised to reform the university entrance platform, a move that did not address the students' primary demands regarding infrastructure and funding. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has urged the political left to choose between supporting the police or the rioters, framing the conflict as a binary choice between the Republic and a violent agenda.
French economist Lucas Chancel notes that government spending per student has declined by 20 percent since 2017. The education ministry reports that 20.2 million teaching hours were not delivered in state secondary schools during the 2024-25 academic year, with 15 million of those hours lost due to unreplaceable teacher absences.
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