France’s Protests, which started out with peaceful gatherings, have turned into violent riots throughout the country about cost of living, schools, public services, etc. Cities and historic buildings hundreds of years old are on fire as protestors across the country riot and loot.
New Developments In Schools
Across schools in France, new concerns over bathroom conditions have surfaced. Students across schools have major complaints about their school’s bathrooms.
At Rosa Parks High-School in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis, Students reported that many restrooms are missing doors and privacy screens, and even more jarring, lack of toilet paper and soap. Additionally, students have reported that girl’s bathrooms are missing needed menstrual products, and that there aren’t enough restrooms across schools. Additional concerns over the safety, privacy, and cleanliness of these restrooms have been made.
At another school near Saint-Denis, students complain of cockroaches and rats in the school, with restrooms lacking water and how they have to ask school staff for toilet paper.
Many students have to travel across entire cities in order to get to their schools, with some describing it as ‘the odds stacked against us’. Students report that in certain classes, teachers can be missing for entire semesters, leaving students having to learn entire subjects by themselves, possibly missing critical information only a teacher can provide. Furthermore, with not enough schools, sometimes 40 students are crammed into individual classrooms, straining the already little individual help students receive.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/oct/10/school-protesters-sevran-paris-suburb-france
Developments in Protests
Other unions and activist organizations joined in with the protesting families. Yellow Vest Activists, who were started in 2018 over concerns of fuel and the cost of living, are beginning to show the broader theme the protests are moving towards. More and more people have joined these protests throughout the country over the high cost of living and overall degradation of public services. Radical ultra-left groups, protestors, and criminals came to the streets on October 17th, looting, robbing, and burning buildings and cars across cities. Protests and riots started to move towards a general wider concern about public services, high cost of living, and government spending. Official reports say that about 1550 or more shops were affected during the October 17th protests. President Macron expresses his discontent with violent protestors, “who prevent people from peacefully expressing their demands,” he said on October 17th.
Additionally, violent-criminal protestors set buildings such as the Limoges’s City Hall. In Lyon, protestors burned the city’s tourism office.
In the October 17th protest, sources estimate that:
- Over 550,000 people participated
- Over 1,200 people arrested
- 150 Officers injured or hurt
- Estimates of over 3,000 shops looted or damaged
October 24th Protests:
The next major demonstration took place the weekend after the first riots. The government deployed a much larger police force, and while there was much less overall looting and destruction, injuries were still rampant. These protests took place near the last weekend’s protests.
In the October 24th Protests, sources estimate that:
- Over 410,000 people participated
- Over 1,314 people arrested
- 53 Officers injured or hurt
- 24 Business looted/damaged
- 75 Fire-related interventions
- 70,000 Police and gendarmes prepared for deployment nationwide
Other Countries Protesting
Amid the protests in France, citizens in Serbia, Italy, Albania and Belgium have joined in, protesting against high costs of living, critical public services, etc. While in Belgium, Albania and Italy, protests have reached unsatisfactory results for the protestors, in Serbia, student led protests led to major reform in the education system.
