David has written about this story a couple times in the past week but the school walkouts and riots have continued this week in France. This started out as a complaint about schools but it seems to be morphing into a more widespread left-wing protests/riots.
Student protests are sweeping France, morphing into a display of broader discontent as the government strains to control its finances, months before a critical presidential election.
People spilled into the streets Tuesday across the nation after two weeks of students blockading schools and at times clashing with police. Several influential French labor unions joined Tuesday’s rallies, as people gathered in dozens of cities including Paris, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse...
“Old enough to be teargassed, but not to protest,” one sign in Lille said. “Disenchanted generation,” read another sign in Paris.
The protests have gained momentum as they tap into popular anger over spending cuts and rising prices, with a heated debate gripping France about how to contain record debt.
The protests are being described as "mostly peaceful" but I'm not sure it seems that way on the streets. Since last month, 6,000 people have been arrested.
The protests on Tuesday were mostly peaceful, but a fire was started in Lyon and police officers unleashed tear gas in cities including Paris, where the Interior Ministry said 56,000 demonstrators had marched. By nightfall, most protests had ended, but a few hundred protesters remained in a square in Paris, facing off with police officers.
Roughly 6,000 people have been arrested since the unrest began in September, and Mr. Lecornu told lawmakers on Tuesday that 215 students and 85 school staff members had been injured. He condemned the violence, saying “violent individuals who mingle with the nonviolent high school students” were to blame for any unrest.
Here's some video from Lyon:
🔴 #Manifestation #Lycéens #Lyon : « On a pas vu ça depuis les Gilets Jaunes », déclare un manifestant après une impressionnante charge des émeutiers avec multiples projectiles, mortiers ou encore montage de barricades. Situation toujours en cours @actufr_lyon @actufr https://t.co/bhsnDn4lCS
— Julien Damboise (@DamboiseJulien) October 6, 2026
This definitely doesn't look peaceful.
🚨🇫🇷 Lyon ERUPTS as student protests descend into CLASHES with police. The demonstration has started, and tensions are BOILING OVER on the streets! https://t.co/raJxwdpHQf
— Global Dissident (@GlobalDiss) October 6, 2026
As mentioned above, a fire was set in the street. Notice all the people wearing black bloc to hide their identities.
🔴🔥 FLASH | À Lyon (69), les Antifas, black blocs et autres casseurs allument des feux de barricades qui sèment la peur et le désarroi parmi les habitants. https://t.co/QJfj0gjHoG
— French Report (@french_report78) October 6, 2026
There were also showdowns with police in Paris:
Intervention de la police contre le cortège de tête près de la Place de la Nation à Paris suite a un départ de feu. #6octobre #BlocusLycées #BlocusUniversités #Paris https://t.co/5POhENK2r3
— Luc Auffret (@LucAuffret) October 6, 2026
More fire in the streets and police did use teargas.
Riot police have fired tear gas at protesters in Paris after the demonstrations across the country saw thousands of schools partially or fully closed. Up to 40,000 people are expected to be attending the protest in the French capital. Read the latest 🔗 https://t.co/OO4R2ZBbVu https://t.co/DpFzecxHyf
— Sky News (@SkyNews) October 6, 2026
Police pushed through a human chain around a school and removed obstacles in the street.
CHAOS IN PARIS: Riot police push through a human chain outside a Paris high school as France's growing student protest movement spills into another tense confrontation. The standoff unfolds outside Hélène Boucher school, where students are protesting overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and deteriorating school conditions. Demonstrations are sweeping the country, with students blockading hundreds of schools. France's Interior Ministry says 86,000 people joined demonstrations outside Paris Tuesday morning, while the CGT union puts nationwide participation far higher at 260,000.
— Fox News (@FoxNews) October 6, 2026
You can see police being pelted with rocks or other objects in some of these clips.
Ils s’étaient préparés à faire la guerre aux policiers et aux gendarmes 🇫🇷. Place de la Nation, à Paris, regardez ces courageux policiers faire face à une horde de voyous qui les canardent. J’en connais peu qui iraient tenir leur place sous cette pluie de projectiles. Respect total à eux ! Les images parlent d’elles-mêmes ⤵️
— Matthieu Valet (@mvalet_officiel) October 6, 2026
Congrats to this mom who pulled her son out of the protests. Where are the rest of these kids' parents?
🚨 Une MÈRE débarque en plein blocus pour CORRIGER son fils. https://t.co/ByOVQ5UEyZ
— Frontières (@Frontieresmedia) October 6, 2026
Mostly peaceful Antifa goons trashing a bank in Paris.
🚨 ALERTE - Des black blocs EXPLOSENT une banque BNP à Paris. https://t.co/2r9QoOYMCK
— Frontières (@Frontieresmedia) October 6, 2026
Elsewhere in France some students entered a church and played rap music celebrating terror attacks on France. This is pretty sickening.
🇫🇷 In the Vendee region of France, young students have caused outrage by desecrating a church and singing along a rap song glorifying Hitler, ISIS and the deadliest terrorist attacks against the French nation. The chorus references Mohamed Merah, the Bataclan, and Salah Abdeslam, and includes the line “I’ll do an Adolf Hitler on him” — a threat to kill: "Like Mohamed Merah, I dodge the cameras; Bataclan, I shot him in the eye — manhunt; Salah Abdeslam Bro; In hell there’s a bounty on my head, I’m unleashed like a hellhound Tell your rapper to let me do my thing; Woe to him if he won’t cooperate, bro — I’ll do an Adolf Hitler on him" Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Islamist, carried out shooting attacks in Toulouse and Montauban in 2012. He killed three French paratroopers and, at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, a rabbi, his two young sons, and an 8-year-old girl. On November 13, 2015, ISIS attackers hit the Bataclan during a concert. Ninety people were killed in the theater. Across Paris that night, 130 died. Salah Abdeslam is the only surviving member of the ISIS cell behind those attacks.
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) October 6, 2026
Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Islamist, carried out shooting attacks in Toulouse and Montauban in 2012. He killed three French paratroopers and, at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, a rabbi, his two young sons, and an 8-year-old girl.
On November 13, 2015, ISIS attackers hit the Bataclan during a concert. Ninety people were killed in the theater. Across Paris that night, 130 died.
This looks like a real disaster and the government doesn't seem to have a response except to cancel school, ensuring even more protesters will be in the streets.
🇫🇷 𝗣𝗔𝗥𝗜𝗦 𝗣𝗥𝗢𝗧𝗘𝗦𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗡 𝗩𝗜𝗢𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧 𝗔𝗦 𝗣𝗢𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗘 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗦𝗛 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗗𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗧𝗢𝗥𝗦 🔥 Paris saw clashes between protesters and riot police on October 6 as France faced one of its largest student protest movements in decades. 🇫🇷 But there is an important correction: the demonstrations currently sweeping France are primarily school protests, driven by demands for more teachers, better funding and improved school conditions. They are not simply pro-Palestinian riots. 🎯 Police used tear gas and made hundreds of arrests nationwide. In Paris, tens of thousands joined the main demonstration, while clashes and street fires were also reported in several French cities. ⚠️ A separate pro-Palestinian demonstration planned in Paris for October 7 has been banned by authorities, citing the heightened terrorist threat and concerns over public disorder. The footage of street clashes is real. The claim that today's Paris unrest is simply a “pro-Palestine uprising” is not supported by current reporting. #France #Paris #VortexReport
— 🇺🇦 Vortex Report (@VortexReportX) October 6, 2026
The underlying problem here is overspending and high deficits. There's every reason to think that things will get a lot worse before they get better.
The global surge in interest rates has exposed the country, once considered an oasis of relative stability in Europe’s financial markets, as one of the continent’s weakest links. France now pays more to borrow than former crisis hot spots like Greece and Italy. Its government is running a budget deficit surpassed only by the United States among its peers...
Investors are bracing for things to get worse. The rise in rates is saddling the government with higher costs just as it needs to refinance a mountain of debt borrowed during the era of ultralow interest rates. France has more than $1 trillion in debt coming due by 2030, and next year is set to sell a record of about $380 billion in debt into a market where once-reliable sources of demand have evaporated...
“France has been this free rider in Europe for years, if not decades. It has gotten away with fiscal murder,” said Kevin Thozet, a portfolio adviser at the French asset manager Carmignac. “It worked as long as people were not noticing. Now people have started to notice.”
The cost of servicing France’s debt is expected to climb 59% by 2030, according to a recent study commissioned by the French finance ministry. Debt payments are now one of the French government’s largest line items and could dwarf military spending by the end of the decade. France’s debt, now worth nearly 120% of gross domestic product, risks putting the economy in what its central-bank chief recently called a “gradual stranglehold.”
The forecast calls for more riots, more spending they can't afford and more left-wing agitators trashing police and banks, all because you can't borrow indefinitely without consequences. Until someone comes along who can convince the French of the need to balance a budget once in a while, this is going to continue to spiral downward.
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