France suspended police use of stun grenades at student protests after a 15-year-old boy lost his hand in a clash near Auguste Béhal high school in Lens on Monday. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said a “strong possibility” existed that a non-lethal grenade caused the injury. He ordered the suspension until investigators clarified the facts.
The Lens Investigation
The boy underwent an amputation and remained in hospital. Accounts of the incident conflict: authorities said he picked up the grenade before it exploded, while students alleged an officer fired it directly at him, according to the BBC. The local prefect said police faced 200-250 students throwing stones and fireworks. When the grenade detonates, it releases small rubber pellets.
Nuñez said the police watchdog IGPN had opened 18 investigations into whether officers acted proportionately. “There is a police action that raises questions for all of us within the Ministry of the Interior; it's what happened in Lens,” he told French radio RTL. “When there is suspicion of disproportionate force, there are always judicial investigations,” he said, adding that the government was “here to protect high school students.” Rights groups, students and some political opponents accused police of disproportionate force.
The protests began in mid-September and continued through Wednesday. More than 500 schools were fully or partly closed on Wednesday, after demonstrations disrupted almost a quarter of France's lycées on Tuesday, the BBC reported. The interior ministry said more than 250,000 people took part in Tuesday's protests; student unions put turnout at 450,000. Unions called a fourth round of demonstrations for Thursday in Paris and other cities.
The interior ministry said 488 people were arrested and 43 members of the security forces were hurt during Tuesday's demonstrations. Since the protests began, 215 students, 85 staff and 715 police officers had been injured, the prime minister said. More than 6,500 people had been stopped or arrested, according to the interior ministry. Police used tear gas and water cannon in some cities.
Schools, Costs and Public Order
Students cite dilapidated school buildings, teacher shortages, overloaded schedules, inadequate education funding, poor learning conditions and inequality between regions. They blame those conditions for France's declining results in the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which have fallen faster than the OECD average since 2015.
French 15-year-olds scored 43 points lower in reading in 2025 than a decade earlier, the biggest drop in the OECD; their mathematics scores also fell the most. Students also want changes to Parcoursup, the platform for applying to first-year higher education courses, which they regard as opaque and unequal.
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called the unrest the most violent student demonstrations in decades and said students' demands were “legitimate.” In a televised address, he said the country couldn't be “indifferent” to their concerns and that the “anger of young people does not come from nowhere.” He said security forces had no orders to “confront” protesting students.
The government is consulting secondary students and has launched projects involving cover for absent teachers, school repairs, timetables and Parcoursup. Lecornu promised a plan by the end of October. The Agora app, which collects young people's grievances, had received 30,000 anonymous contributions.
President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting late Tuesday with Lecornu and other key ministers. The protests come six months before the presidential election to replace Macron, with far-right and far-left parties described as front-runners. The government faces pressure to control public debt amid weak growth, while funds for staffing, school-building investment and regional inequality remain limited. The draft 2027 budget provides for increased education spending, while the government must find several tens of billions of euros in savings to repair public finances.
Protests Cross Borders
In Liège, in Belgium's French-speaking Wallonia region, hundreds of students rallied over rising education costs, overcrowded classrooms and difficulty accessing study materials. Local media reported 107 arrests in recent days; France 24 also reported at least 107 arrests connected with protests that month. Authorities advised shopkeepers to close early. The official warning system BE-Alert said Thursday: “Major unrest is underway. Close your businesses.”
Liège's main train station closed and later reopened. Police urged people to avoid the city centre, saying on social media: “Due to the ongoing demonstration, avoid the city centre. Traffic there is severely disrupted”. Local authorities couldn't immediately confirm arrests that Belga said involved alleged offences including property damage and arson. Videos circulating online showed shattered glass, fires, mostly young protesters and police blocking roads. During Wednesday's protest, police checked students for weapons.
The Belgian unrest followed June clashes between protesters and police in Brussels over education reforms, including a tuition increase for most students in Belgium's French-speaking Community from €835 to €1,194 ($1,280). Some Belgian students said they were in contact with French counterparts. “We support each other because we're facing pretty much the same issues,” said 19-year-old student Alfred. Amelia Di Salve, also 19 and studying to become a teacher, said the Belgian movement began earlier in the year and was reignited after students saw demonstrations in France. “When we saw nothing was changing without protests, we decided we would start ... France did influence us a little,” she said.
In Portugal, the main teachers' union FENPROF began an indefinite strike in mid-September over overtime, with teachers refusing unpaid work beyond the legally mandated 35-hour week. In Spain, teachers' unions protested conditions in state schools, and Madrid teachers planned a strike for October 14 seeking fewer hours, smaller classes and higher salaries.