Over 400 French schools closed ahead of nationwide student protests

Hundreds of French high schools will begin a second week of closures on ‌Monday as protests over dilapidated schools and classrooms, overcrowding and teacher shortages precede a nationwide day of demonstrations on Tuesday.

The nationwide demonstrations and blockades underline a fraught social atmosphere as France's government embarks on trying to pass a deficit-narrowing 2027 budget. France's 10-year bond yield briefly topped 5% last week, its highest since 2002, ​as the protests compounded investor concerns over the country's fiscal outlook.

About 400 to 500 high schools are expected to remain completely ​or partially closed on Monday in France, out of a total of 3,700, Education Minister Edouard Geffray said ⁠on Sunday evening.

On Monday, BFMTV showed images of police and students clashing in Lille in northern France, tear gas being used in Toulouse in the southwest and of a fire being lit as people tried to ​break into a school in central Paris.

The protests began in late September at a high school in a Paris suburb over teacher shortages before spreading nationwide.

Since last Monday, around 5,000 people, mostly teenagers, have been arrested nationwide and dozens injured. Teachers and ​members of the public have ​been attacked, while damage to property ⁠is estimated in the tens of millions of euros.

Paris ​police chief Patrice Faure, in an open letter published on X on Saturday, said those who had ​launched the protests ⁠no longer controlled them and called on students to abandon blockades in favor of peaceful protest.

Student unions have nevertheless called for a national day of demonstrations on Tuesday. Security officials fear that an organized protest in central Paris in particular could see further violence amid concerns that far-left and ⁠anarchist groups ​could try to take over the protests.