French Police Detain 400 in School Protests Over Budget Cuts

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told BFM TV on Tuesday that 440 people had been detained nationwide since student protests began, a figure he described as not final, according to Al Jazeera. About two-thirds of those detained were subsequently placed in police custody, Nunez said.

How many people were detained and injured?

The French education ministry says the protests have affected roughly 400 of the country's 3,700 lycees, or high schools, as of Tuesday, Al Jazeera reported. Law enforcement officers sustained 48 injuries during the confrontations, according to authorities cited in the same report. Nunez also said there had been seven separate incidents in which hydrochloric acid was thrown at police.

Data box

• 440 people detained nationwide as of Tuesday (Interior Ministry, via Al Jazeera, Sept. 30, 2026)
• 48 law enforcement officers injured (French authorities, via Al Jazeera)
• ~400 of 3,700 lycees affected by blockades (French education ministry, via Al Jazeera)
• 7 reported incidents of hydrochloric acid thrown at police (Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, BFM TV)

What are students protesting?

The demonstrations center on crowded classrooms, teacher shortages and lengthy school days, Al Jazeera reported. About 80 students gathered outside the Lamartine school in Paris carrying signs complaining of getting "More hours of lessons than sleep," according to the outlet. At the Lycee Brequigny in Rennes, Brittany's largest high school, roughly 100 students threw projectiles at the building, an AFP video journalist reported.

Why did the protests turn violent this week?

The movement began at high schools in the Paris area last week before spreading nationwide, Al Jazeera reported. On Tuesday, protesters set fire to rubbish bins outside a high school in Lille and threw bottles and paving stones at police, who responded with tear gas after bus shelters and advertising hoardings were vandalized. AFP reported that high school students piled up rubbish bins at the entrance to the Lycee Gabriel Guist'hau in Nantes, and that police carrying riot shields struck students with batons when a crowd formed in the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Confrontations were also reported in Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Lyon and Marseille. Nunez condemned protesters who arrived with covered faces carrying projectiles, saying there was no justification for seeking confrontations with officers.

How does this connect to the public sector strikes?

The school unrest coincided with a public sector strike over the government's budget plans, according to Al Jazeera, compounding political pressure on President Emmanuel Macron ahead of next year's presidential election. Vincent Latour, a professor of British studies at Universite Toulouse Jean Jaures, was cited by Al Jazeera discussing the broader context, though the outlet's full analysis of the strike's scope was not detailed in available reporting.

What to watch

• Whether the detention count, currently 440 and described by Nunez as not final, continues to climb as police process cases tied to Tuesday's clashes.
• Whether blockades spread beyond the roughly 400 affected lycees as the school week continues.
• Whether the education ministry or Macron's government responds directly to complaints about class sizes, teacher shortages and school hours.
• Whether the public sector budget strikes and student protests continue to overlap in the run-up to the 2027 presidential race.

For related coverage of events in France this week, see HTT News' report on Pope Leo XIV's four-day visit to France.