France counts 256,000 on the streets as Lecornu calls the school toll the heaviest in decades

France's interior ministry counted 256,000 people on the streets on Tuesday for the third national day of secondary-school protests, including 56,000 in Paris. The youth union coalition, which includes the Union syndicale lycéenne and the Union étudiante, told franceinfo the figure was 450,000 nationwide and 100,000 in the capital. Either count makes Tuesday the largest day of a movement that began in September in the poorer suburbs of Paris and has now reached Lyon, Lille, Marseille, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rennes, Strasbourg and Nantes.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has called it the heaviest toll the school system has paid in decades. He told lawmakers that at least 215 teenagers and 85 school staff had been injured in the clashes so far. The interior ministry said 488 people were arrested on Tuesday and 48 security personnel were hurt. A separate police tally puts officers injured since the protests began at more than 700. On Monday the justice ministry said 5,060 people had been detained since the start, 87 percent of them minors, and that more than 1,800 people were being prosecuted, including 1,483 minors. A teenager lost a hand on Monday.

The education ministry said classes were suspended, wholly or in part, at 891 of France's 3,700 lycées. The secondary teachers' union USL put the number of schools blockaded or closed as a precaution at 1,800, and said 90 percent of universities were blockaded. Some classes have moved online. In Paris the march left Place de la République for Nation at about 2.30 p.m. Police said the bulk of the capital's clashes came from about 300 people, most hooded or masked, facing security forces at the end of the route. Tear gas and water cannon were used in Paris, Strasbourg, Rennes and Toulouse. Storefronts were damaged. Outside the capital, franceinfo described the provincial marches as largely without major incident.

The demands are specific and unglamorous. Pupils, parents and teachers want absent teachers replaced, a shorter school day than the current run from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., longer lunch breaks, and repairs to buildings with water leaks and rat infestations. French education spending has lagged inflation. In the 2025 PISA round, French pupils trailed the OECD average in the core tests. Lecornu has ordered ministers to answer those points, with a first set of proposals due by the end of October. He convened an emergency meeting with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Education Minister Édouard Geffray. President Emmanuel Macron, who had stayed out of the handling in public, was due to join a crisis meeting at the Élysée on Tuesday evening, BFMTV, Le Monde and Le Parisien reported.

Emilie Lhomme, a parent outside the Hélène Boucher school in Paris, told Reuters that official promises were "all fine and dandy, but that's not what's going to change the daily lives of our children." Hugo Vetzel, a recent graduate marching in Strasbourg, said: "There is such a gap between the elites and us." Omar Slaouti, a teacher in Argenteuil, accused the government of trying to "divide the young people into good and bad protesters."

That split is already in the politics. Rights groups, student unions and parent associations say force against minors has been out of proportion. The government says outsiders have taken over parts of the marches and that some districts have tipped into street violence. Police have been hit with fireworks. Marine Le Pen's National Rally has not tied the protests to migration. Donald Trump did, writing on Truth Social that the marches were "about Islam wanting to take over a once great Country." Pupils and teachers on the route have rejected that reading. Their texts, posted by the unions before Tuesday, list staffing ratios, building repairs and class size.

The fiscal setting makes a quick answer unlikely. Since Macron's allies lost their majority in 2024, passing a budget has been the government's hardest ordinary task. Lecornu is under pressure to cut the deficit while growth is weak. A school package that replaces teachers and rebuilds lycées costs money the finance ministry has been trying to hold back. The end-of-October deadline he set is inside that argument, not outside it.

Two figures will decide whether Tuesday was a peak or a step. One is the education ministry's count of lycées still closed on Wednesday morning. The other is whether the Élysée meeting produces a dated commitment on replacement teachers, rather than a review. The injury ledger is already the largest the prime minister says the school system has recorded in decades. The arrest ledger is mostly minors. Both will still be there when the proposals arrive.