The following is the report given by Rémi Lebrun at the Oct. 9, 2026 meeting of the International Peace Coalition, on the nature and the evolution of the mass student mobilization in France. Rémi Lebrun is a member and candidate for Solidarité & Progrès in the upcoming legislative elections, and has been particularly active in the French social ferment, in particular, since the Yellow Vest revolt exploded in 2018.
Hello, this is Rémi from France, where we are experiencing a rather extraordinary situation reminiscent of the “Yellow Vests” era. It involves a widespread mobilization—particularly among high school students—that began in September with demands regarding working conditions and the problem of long-term teacher absenteeism, without replacement of such teachers. High schools are in very poor physical conditions, plagued by cockroaches, rats, unsanitary restrooms, and contaminated water. This movement started in Parisian ordinary high schools three weeks ago and has now spread not only to all such schools throughout the country, but is reaching out to even the most prestigious institutions, such as the École Normale Supérieure, the Institut Catholique de Paris, and the École Alsacienne.
Today, a huge number of high schools are involved; last week, between 400 and 600 were blockaded. Now, university students are joining in, and middle schools are mobilizing as well. And, as you have surely seen, there has been a massive crackdown—even compared to the Yellow Vests, who also faced severe repression (the Yellow Vests saw 12,000 arrests over the course of a year).
In high school students, there have been over 6,000 arrests in less than a month. Of those arrested, 84% were minors placed in police custody—meaning they were taken to the police station and held for 24 or 48 hours. That amounts to 4,400 young people under the age of 18. You may also have seen that France is the only country in Europe that authorizes the police to use “disengagement grenades” (stun grenades designed to disperse crowds). This has resulted in horrific injuries, including a severed arm, a severed hand, and two cases of people being blinded in one eye. So, we are witnessing a police resorting very rapidly to violence.
Interior Minister Nunez publicly stated that he was giving no orders for restraint to law enforcement—and for no good reason: at the heart of what the high school students want to raise is the very meaning of their lives. Unlike in May '68, they aren’t there to demand sexual freedom or anything of that sort; they want to be able to work, to truly study, and to find meaning in their work. And that is something that can resonate deeply with the general public.
We’ve seen retirees and parents—parents of students coming to protect their children—participating in the protests. We were able to distribute a leaflet titled “Your Future Is Our Future,” in which we raise the point that the government’s under funding of schools and failure to provide students with the means to study is not merely an oversight or a mistake; rather, our leaders—successive governments—are dead set on producing “little soldiers” or “trained monkeys.”
So, that is the issue we need to address: the “why”—why work, why this society, and why education? We’ll keep you posted on what happens next, and good luck with the mobilization elsewhere.
