Thousands defy Paris march ban as French student and pupil blockades continue

The Paris route ban

Students and pupils returned to the streets on Tuesday, 3 November, after a two-week autumn break, and Paris became the focus of a dispute over where they could march. The Paris Police Prefecture issued an order on Monday, 2 November, banning a route from the Panthéon to the headquarters of the Medef, the French employers' federation. Interfac IDF, which presents itself as the general assembly of students in Île-de-France universities, challenged the order in court, but the administrative court rejected its request to annul it. The prefecture then set out the only permitted route in a statement.

the only authorised route is therefore from the Porte de Charenton to the Porte de Montreuil

Several thousand students and pupils nonetheless gathered in central Paris, and some chanted that they would not be stopped from demonstrating. The prefecture said two banned processions were spotted and immediately surrounded by officers, and they were held for about an hour before heading to the Sorbonne and dispersing calmly.

Crowd estimates and the protesters' case

The authorities put the crowd at between 15,000 and 30,000 people, while Marion Ogier, the lawyer defending Interfac IDF, said she had expected about 2,000 and that the ban was made without a hearing. Around 14:30, about 2,000 students and pupils were seen walking calmly towards the Panthéon. In a statement, Interfac IDF denounced the route it had been given.

a humiliating route, outside the city centre and kilometres from where we want to go: the Medef

Ryad Rani, president of the Union syndicale lycéenne (USL), told BFMTV that the government was threatening the right to demonstrate through last-minute bans on protests.

Schools, universities and arrests

The Education Ministry counted 48 of the country's roughly 3,700 lycées blocked or disrupted on Tuesday morning, and said no disruption had been recorded in three quarters of departments. The USL disputed that figure and put the number of blocked schools at 500. The Higher Education Ministry said 51 of 184 higher-education institutions were disrupted on Tuesday, while the Union étudiante said one university in two was affected. On Monday, 15 per cent of higher-education institutions had reported disruption, and the Dauphine university in Paris stayed closed with no reopening expected before Friday, 6 November. In Lyon, about 900 students joined an authorised morning protest, and 17 arrests were reported across the Lyon metropolitan area. At Rennes, about 30 pupils blocked access to the Lycée Bréquigny, one of the country's largest schools, and a staff member told them they were not the majority.

Demands, police and Thursday's strike

Pupils want the Parcoursup admissions system revoked, and the government has committed to replacing it gradually by 2028. Students call the government's measures insufficient, including a 5 billion euro allocation for building renovation that the government approved, changes to access to higher education and higher scholarship amounts. Teachers at the Voltaire school in eastern Paris went on strike in solidarity with pupils, objecting to what they described as a heavy police presence outside the school. The USL accused police of holding pupils against walls and of sending riot police companies to the schools. A nationwide interprofessional strike against the cost of living is set for Thursday, 5 November, and unions expect tensions to rise that day.