French High School Blockades Resume on Smaller Scale After Autumn Break

The Education Ministry said 41 high schools were blockaded, equivalent to about 1% of schools nationwide. Blockades were reported in several cities, including Paris, Marseille and Rennes, as students returned from a two-week break.

The resumption followed an announcement by a student-union or student-group leader that the blockades would restart on Monday. The supplied reports do not identify the leader by name, leaving the announcement tied to the wider student movement rather than to a named individual.

The renewed blockades came as the government sought to address the education dispute. France 24 reported that President Emmanuel Macron had called for classes to resume while the government announced measures to respond to the crisis. Euronews reported that those measures included changes to university admissions, additional teachers and limits on class sizes.

The smaller scale of Monday’s action contrasted with the broader blockades reported before the holiday break, while the return of protests showed that government measures had not ended the movement. The available reporting does not fully detail the broader protest’s causes or demands.

RFI reported plans for a nationwide day of strikes and protests on Thursday, suggesting that the week could bring a broader test of the government’s response. That planned action was not independently corroborated by the other supplied reports.