World News
Almost 1,000 arrested as hundreds of thousands march across France over schools and living costs
By Staff Writer | 25 October 2026
The interior ministry put Saturday's turnout at about 410,000 and the unions at about 800,000. The marches were largely peaceful, but police used tear gas and water cannon in Paris and several other cities as the day ended.
Nearly 1,000 people were arrested in France on Saturday after another day of mass protests over school conditions, the cost of living and the policing of earlier demonstrations, according to the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez. He said the number would rise.
The interior ministry estimated that about 410,000 people marched across the country. The trade unions put the figure at about 800,000. In Paris, at least 110,000 people walked along the eastern edge of the city, according to government estimates, on a route from Porte d'Italie towards Porte de Vincennes.
More than 70,000 police officers were deployed. President Emmanuel Macron had decreed earlier in the week that only demonstrations organised by recognised trade unions would be permitted, and marchers were kept away from city centres.
Calm marches, clashes at the end
The Paris march was peaceful for most of the afternoon, with brass bands and families among the crowd. At Porte de Vincennes, groups of masked men dressed in black threw bottles and stones at officers, who answered with tear gas, water cannon and stun grenades. Riot police also charged a larger crowd at the end of the route. Nuñez said several thousand radical activists had gathered at the rear of the march, including about 500 people identified as rioters.
Police fired tear gas to stop protesters reaching the centres of Lyon, Lille, Montpellier, Nantes and Toulouse. In Marseille, barricades and bins were set alight, and in Bordeaux boards were pulled from a building to build a street barricade. The minister said two people had been seriously injured, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand.
The radical left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who joined the Paris rally, said Macron must give way and address the grievances behind the protests or face them again.
Given the current situation, I think he will come to understand that this will happen again every week.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, presidential candidate
A movement that began in the classroom
The protests began in mid-September, when pupils aged 15 to 18 started blockading their schools over staff shortages, leaking and crumbling buildings and overcrowded classrooms. Trade unions, teachers and parents later joined them. Many of those marching on Saturday also objected to the heavy police response to the school protests over the past month.
Last weekend about 550,000 people took part in demonstrations against fuel prices and living costs, and the day ended in some of the worst disorder in France for years, with public buildings burned, shops looted and more than 2,500 people arrested. The Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimated the damage at hundreds of millions of euros. Hundreds of people have since been jailed after fast-track court hearings.
About 13,000 people also marched peacefully in Orléans against a congress of Marine Le Pen's National Rally. In Tirana, police fired tear gas at anti-government demonstrators, clashes were reported in Brussels, and a large security operation with hundreds of soldiers kept protesters from gathering in Milan.
The presidential election is six months away, and the leading contenders have laid the blame for the unrest on Macron and his ministers.