French President Emmanuel Macron has called for high schools to reopen calmly on the Monday after the autumn holidays, after a month of student protests and school blockades that have shaken France — while student organizations say they will keep marching and resume blockades when classes return. In an interview broadcast on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, on the YouTube channel HugoDécrypte, Macron defended the return to normalcy in schools and said the government had heard the students' demands. "When we talk about the future of our youth, it must be able to resume its classes," he said. He defended the current running of Parcoursup, the university admissions platform at the center of the revolt, while accepting that admission criteria need to be more transparent. Macron also addressed the violence at the margins of the protests. He lamented specific cases, including the loss of an eye by a minor in Tours and the amputation of a student's hand in Lens due to a police grenade, and confirmed that more than 50 investigations have been opened into alleged irregularities by law enforcement. He justified his previous silence by saying his earlier comments addressed only the riots and looting of October 17, which he attributed to a lack of police foresight, far-left groups and vandalism.
The government's package — and why students say it is not enough.
The protests erupted last month in high schools in the eastern suburbs of Paris, with students complaining about teacher shortages, crumbling buildings, overcrowded classrooms and long school days, and later merged with a wider cost-of-living movement. Mass demonstrations on October 17 and 24 were marked by violence at their margins. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu met student leaders on Monday, October 26, and announced a package: a reform of Parcoursup with partial implementation in 2027 and a full replacement by 2028, 15,000 new places in higher education, 1 billion euros to renovate universities by 2031, and up to 4 billion euros in loans for local authorities to upgrade high schools. On Wednesday, October 28, Lecornu opened a debate without a vote in the National Assembly, asking deputies to find a route through Parliament and bring concrete proposals. Student representatives dismissed the measures as insufficient. Manon Moret, general secretary of the National Union of Students of France, called government ministers "totally clueless" and vowed further protests and school blockades. Unions are demanding 10 billion euros to improve the education system, while France carries 3.6 trillion euros in debt.
What comes next.
Student organizations were due to meet Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez again on Thursday, October 29, to question the forcefulness of police actions during the marches. Ministers Édouard Geffray and Philippe Baptiste are due to receive student representatives on Thursday, November 5 — the day of a planned general mobilization backed by nearly all French unions, focused on purchasing power and wages. In the meantime, students plan to join demonstrations on Friday in front of the National Assembly and on Saturday, October 31, in national marches organized by unions — the same weekend for which the government has deployed 70,000 police. And after the school calendar restarts on Monday, November 2, students plan to resume blockades at schools. An Elabe poll for BFMTV, published on October 28, found 54 percent of respondents want the mobilization to end and 46 percent want it to continue — 29 percent at the same level and 17 percent harder. Macron's call for a calm return to class is, in effect, an appeal to that majority. Whether the students listen will be tested first on Saturday, and again on Monday morning at the school gates.
Sources: HugoDécrypte interview with Emmanuel Macron, October 28, 2026, via Últimas Noticias, October 29, 2026; The Times via China Daily, October 29, 2026; Pollar News, October 29, 2026.