SAINT-DENIS, France—At 7:30 a.m., the gates of Paul-Éluard high school were closed in the north Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, which has been at the center of youth protests this week.
About two hours later, a protest was taking shape a short distance away. A procession of young people coming from the nearby Paris 8 University gathered about 650 feet from Frédéric-Bartholdi vocational high school before setting off toward the center of Saint-Denis.
High school and university students mingled with other protesters who appeared older. Some wore keffiyehs, black clothing, or punk-style outfits. Antifa activists walked among them, alongside young women wearing Islamic headscarves and many protesters of North African or sub-Saharan African descent.
As the procession moved through Saint-Denis, the protesters chanted “siamo tutti antifascisti”—“we are all antifascists” in Italian—“everyone hates the police,” and “more cash for schools, so we don’t end up as cops.”
The atmosphere soon turned confrontational. The demonstrators attacked the police with fireworks and stones, and overturned some garbage cans to block traffic.
Fireworks and stones were launched toward police officers, while protesters overturned garbage cans and dragged them into the street to block traffic.
Theron, 16, a student at the vocational high school, told The Epoch Times that the lack of teaching material and teachers at his school motivated him to attend the protest. He said he did not have a teacher for one subject for a year and had to repeat the year.
“I do not even know how I am going to pass my baccalaureate”—the French high school exit exam—he said.
Djélyana, 15, said her school was poorly maintained and argued that she should be allowed to wear Islamic clothing if she chooses to. Several young women wearing Islamic headscarves expressed similar views, saying the clothing issue was the main reason they had joined the protest.
Overturned bins block a street in Saint-Denis as masked Antifa activists stand by the barricade, on Oct. 1, 2026. Etienne Fauchaire/The Epoch Times
The movement was not confined to suburban or neighborhood schools but also spread to schools in the heart of the capital.
In the center of Paris, students from the Jacques-Decour high school in the 9th arrondissement of the French capital blocked the entrance of their school with garbage cans, public bicycles, and metal barriers.
Many of them complained of long school hours and heavy homework loads.
For her part, Anaïs, 17, told The Epoch Times that she participated in the protest due to the “unbearable” conditions at high schools in the suburbs and to oppose “systemic racism” before the 2027 presidential election.
Baïssata, 18, a student at Jacques-Decour High School, told The Epoch Times that she hoped the demonstrations would “focus more on discrimination and racism.” Born in Senegal, she said that “people of color should be the ones leading the charge.” She also objected to rules prohibiting girls from wearing Islamic headscarves or abayas in school.
Protesters sit on bins stacked outside the lycée Jacques-Decour in Paris, megaphones in hand, during the school blockades, on Oct. 1, 2026. Etienne Fauchaire/The Epoch Times
Fires, Assaults Rock France
Elsewhere in France, what began as school blockades also descended into violence in several cities.
In the southern city of Marseille, someone doused gasoline on the principal of a high school, according to officials. The principal sustained injuries, the prosecutor’s office said.
Police said a few hundred youths surrounded a fire engine sent to put out a fire at a different high school in Marseille. The youths chased away the fire truck crew and set the vehicle on fire.
The local public transportation authority suspended all bus, tram, and metro transportation after a few buses were targeted near some high schools. In a statement reported by local French outlet Ici Provence, the authority said that drivers had to leave their vehicles and that one of them was assaulted.
Protesters gathered outside a campus building in Saint-Denis, France, one speaking into a megaphone during the mobilization over school resources and learning conditions, on Oct. 1, 2026. Etienne Fauchaire/The Epoch Times
In the western city of Nantes, a fire destroyed the entrance hall of the Nelson Mandela high school when the school was blocked. Gaëlle Cordier, the deputy principal of the high school, said in a statement to AFP news agency that the fire was set intentionally. The local prefecture said that violent individuals were mixed in with the students and targeted schools.
In Normandy, two principals were injured during blockades of their school. The local regional education authority said in a statement reported by France 3 on Wednesday that these were “unacceptable assaults of unprecedented violence.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said 625 people were arrested and 83 police and gendarmerie officers were injured on Wednesday. Education Minister Édouard Geffray said that 119 students and school personnel were injured since the riots began last week.
Nuñez said that hydrochloric acid was thrown at police officers seven times on Tuesday.
A video published on X and shared by Israeli broadcaster i24NEWS showed students blocking a school in Carpentras, in the south of France, chanting, “we burned Israel. Who are the Jews? We trample them.”
Government Points Finger at Far-Left
As the unrest spread, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened an interministerial crisis meeting at the Interior Ministry on Thursday and instructed government ministers to cancel travel over the coming days.
Geffray asked blockaded schools to move classes online, reviving arrangements used during the COVID-19 crisis.
After the crisis meeting, Lecornu’s office said intelligence services had concluded that the student movement was “a maneuver orchestrated by LFI [France Unbowed party] and its ultra-left proxies,” AFP reported. The prime minister’s office said the situation had moved beyond school blockades and had become a problem of “urban violence.”
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, speaking to AFP, urged the government “not to sink into conspiracy-mongering.”
Bally Bagayoko, the LFI mayor of Saint-Denis, went to the Paul-Éluard high school on Monday and Tuesday with students. Speaking to reporters, he said that “violence can be legitimate,” while adding that it would be preferable to avoid violence when possible.
Patrice Faure, the Paris police prefect, referred the matter to the Bobigny prosecutor over possible incitement to commit an offense, his office told AFP on Wednesday.
Bagayoko was filmed laughing and dancing near a burning garbage can as a crowd chanted his first name. The Paris police prefecture said his behavior could be interpreted as “a form of validation, at the very least symbolic,” of the damage, le Parisien reported.
Protesters march through a shopping arcade in Saint-Denis, France, on Oct. 1, 2026. Several women wearing black hijabs and long black garments clap and chant, “We are all antifascists.” Etienne Fauchaire/The Epoch Times
President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday in Madrid that he understood the anxieties of protesters, but it was serious that some political figures went to schools to incite students.
“In a democracy, all debates are legitimate. Violence never is,” Macron said.
Marine Le Pen, the National Rally’s presidential candidate, called for order to be restored. Writing on X on Thursday, she described the unrest as “riots organized by professionals” and accused LFI lawmakers of overseeing them.
With tensions still running high, student organizations have called for a nationwide demonstration on Oct. 6.
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