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Demonstrations swept across France on Tuesday as teachers and parents took to the streets with high school pupils on the biggest day of what Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu described as the most \u200bviolent student demonstrations in decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse violent groups on the fringes of marches in Paris, Strasbourg, Rennes and Toulouse, among other cities. The \u200cmarches drew more than 250,000 people in dozens of cities, the interior ministry said, though organisers said 450,000 had participated.<\/p>\n The protests, in which a teenager lost a hand on Monday, were the latest manifestation of public anger in a country where support for populist parties on the far right and far left has surged ahead of a presidential election in the spring.<\/p>\n The government is under pressure to tame public debt amid weak growth, and has struggled with basic tasks such as passing a budget since President Emmanuel \u200bMacron\u2019s allies lost their majority in a 2024 parliamentary vote.<\/p>\n Lecornu told lawmakers at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had so far been injured in clashes, \u201cthe heaviest toll in decades paid by \u200bthe school system\u201d. His office said more than 700 police officers were also hurt.<\/p>\n Macron has convened Lecornu and other senior ministers at an emergency meeting on Tuesday, broadcaster \u2060BFM reported.<\/p>\n US President Donald Trump said the protests were evidence of \u201cout of control\u201d migration in France. \u201cThis isn\u2019t about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country,\u201d he posted on Truth Social.<\/p>\n The \u200bstudents\u2019 demands do not concern religion or immigration, but focus instead on understaffing and lack of funding. Marine Le Pen\u2019s far-right National Rally party has not linked the protests to France\u2019s migration policy. Lecornu\u2019s office did not respond \u200bto a request for comment.<\/p>\n In Marseille and Nantes, protesters held up handmade signs bearing phrases such as \u201cThe state has killed national education\u201d. In Toulouse, parents linked arms at the front of a march through the city.<\/p>\n Paris police said clashes in the capital resulted from some 300 people, most hooded or masked, facing off against security forces, and that the protest generally unfolded without major incident elsewhere. Several storefronts were damaged.<\/p>\n The Interior Ministry said 488 people had been arrested and 48 security personnel were injured on Tuesday.<\/p>\n MAINTENANCE \u200bCOMPLAINTS<\/strong><\/p>\n The student protests began in September in the deprived suburbs of Paris before spreading nationwide.<\/p>\n Students complain about schools facing basic maintenance problems, from water leaks to rat infestations.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is such a gap between the elites and us,\u201d \u200bsaid Hugo Vetzel, a recent high-school graduate in Strasbourg.<\/p>\n The High School Students Union said more than half of France\u2019s high schools were blockaded or had closed for the day. Some local education authorities have tried to move classes online.<\/p>\n Rights groups, \u200cstudents and parent \u2060groups have accused authorities of using disproportionate force against minors. The government says the protest movement has been hijacked by outsiders and in some places deteriorated into urban violence.<\/p>\n More than 1,800 people are being prosecuted for unspecified crimes, including 1,483 minors, the justice ministry said on Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cThey want to divide the young people into good and bad protesters,\u201d said Omar Slaouti, a high-school teacher in Argenteuil, a northwestern suburb of Paris. \u201cIf there were no trash cans on fire, the government would not have stepped back and become aware of the issues at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n PRIME MINISTER PROMISES A RESPONSE<\/strong><\/p>\n Lecornu has ordered his ministers to tackle the students\u2019 leading demands. Those include ensuring absent teachers are replaced, \u200breviewing the length of the 8 a.m. to 6 \u200bp.m. school day and the need for longer lunch \u2060breaks.<\/p>\n The government will also look at repairs needed to ageing school buildings, said Lecornu, who demanded ministers send in their first proposals by the end of October.<\/p>\n Parent Emilie Lhomme said at a protest outside the Helene Boucher school in Paris that the government\u2019s words were not enough: \u201cThat\u2019s all fine and dandy, but that\u2019s not what\u2019s going \u200bto change the daily lives of our children,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Finding spare cash to implement educational reforms will be difficult.<\/p>\n The government is under pressure to try to \u200bnarrow a ballooning budget deficit \u2060as investor concerns about France\u2019s growing debt, weak growth and reluctance to rein in spending push the cost of borrowing higher. The yield on France\u2019s 10-year bonds briefly hit a 24-year high of over 5% last week.<\/p>\n The surge in French borrowing costs has started to spill into the broader euro area, with the sliding euro currency the latest alarm bell for policy makers. Finance Minister Roland Lescure said on Tuesday there was no need for the European Central Bank to step in.<\/p>\n Le Pen, \u2060the far-right euro-sceptic \u200bpopulist leading the presidential race ahead of next spring\u2019s election, set out plans to slash public spending if elected, seeking to establish her \u200bfiscal credibility as the bond market crisis deepens.<\/p>\n French spending on education has lagged inflation and the country\u2019s students are trailing their OECD peers in overall performance, data from the PISA 2025 assessment shows.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n