French student protests spread as Lecornu accuses LFI of stoking anger ahead of 2027 vote

Protests spread from Paris suburbs

Student protests began in disadvantaged suburbs of Paris in mid-September and have since spread to public schools in every region of France, from big cities to provincial towns. Thousands of students have barricaded high school entrances for more than three weeks, and an opinion piece in The New York Times says they have blocked almost half of the country's lycées. Students aged 15 to 18 cite long school days, large class groups, frequent teacher absences and decaying school buildings. Their grievances also include global warming, the rise of the far right and the threat artificial intelligence poses to young people's jobs.

Lecornu blames LFI as protests grow

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Wednesday, 14 October, that members of France Insoumise (LFI) were using the high school movement for electoral advantage. He accused them of encouraging protests and then going through the motions of condemning violence.

Members of [Mélenchon's] France Insoumise (LFI) are instrumentalising the high school movement for their electoral advantage

Chants of "Mélenchon for President!" can be heard among students in the streets, and demonstrators interviewed cited his call for a wealth tax and for lowering the voting age to 16. Marine Le Pen, the anti-immigration nationalist seen as the favourite in the presidential race, wants to cut France's €11bn contribution to the EU budget.

On Saturday, 17 October, hundreds of new demonstrations are planned across France, with workers' unions and figures from the yellow vest movement expected to join students. Jérôme Rodrigues, a gilets jaunes activist, has urged people on Instagram to take part.

Anger has no political party. An empty fridge has no political party,

A debt problem with no quick fix

Public debt has reached a record $4 trillion, and the cost of borrowing new money now exceeds that of Italy and Greece. Public spending runs at about 57% of GDP, one of the steepest levels among wealthy nations, with pensions taking an exceptionally large share. Education spending is about $100 billion a year, or 5.1% of GDP, above the EU average, yet more than a quarter of that money goes to pensions for retired teachers rather than to young people. France has had six prime ministers in the last five years, all promising to reduce public debt. Economist Anne-Laure Delatte, a CNRS Tenured Researcher at Paris Dauphine University, argues that France cannot be compared to Greece in 2012 or Argentina in 2001, because the country is large and can raise taxes if necessary.

Doubts that a new president can fix it

Delatte doubts that a new president would ease the pressure on public finances. She argues that the Fifth Republic centres on a powerful president, with parliament there to block him or her rather than to build consensus. Parliament has been deeply divided between three opposing blocs since the snap elections.

We need constitutional change. A new system. A new Republic,

The same tension between shrinking public finances, defence spending demands and citizens' demands for better services is visible in Germany, Sweden and Italy, according to the BBC analysis. In France, US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and the war in the Persian Gulf add to the pressure on the economy.

Historical echoes

Süddeutsche Zeitung recalls that the 2005 banlieue riots followed the deaths of two boys evading police and brought three weeks of severe property damage. The gilets jaunes movement, which opposed cost-of-living increases, demonstrated for over a year from 2018 and became one of the longest-lived protest movements in French history.