The French youth revolt

A protester holds a smoke flare and French flag during a demonstration at Paris’s Place de la Republique on October 17, 2026. | Kiran Ridley/AFP via Getty Images This story appeared in Today, Explained, a daily newsletter that helps you understand the most compelling news and stories of the day.

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French protests have long been the stuff of legend, literature, and Broadway musicals .

But even by those storied standards, last weekend’s demonstrations were pretty remarkable.

More than half a million people took to the streets in occasionally violent protests that are posing a mounting political challenge for the French government.

The movement began roughly a month ago over concerns about the sorry state of public high schools , which are frequently underfunded and understaffed.

But in the weeks since, the student protests have rapidly expanded to encompass a wider range of grievances around inequality, high living costs and public services.

The ranks of the protesters have also swelled to include some more opportunistic looters and agitators .

In Paris, masked rioters trashed businesses and set fires, while students blocked the Louvre Museum on Monday, forcing it to close.

In Limoges, a city of roughly 130,000 people, the spire of a 19th-century town hall dramatically collapsed in flames .

The national government has responded with curfews for parts of cities including Paris, Nice, and Lille, as well as emphatic condemnations of the violence.

In a televised address on Sunday night, French President Emmanuel Macron also promised to partner with students, teachers, trade unions and other groups to identify “joint solutions.” But it’s unclear what solutions could possibly speak to the whole of this newly expanded movement.

The initial student protesters were after concrete educational reforms, like smaller class sizes and less chaotic schedules.

The demands now are more diffuse and disjointed, reflecting the sense that — as Macron himself put it — “there is no desirable future” for young people in France.