French student unions call for school and university blockades next week

The call follows the police ban of a Paris demonstration route after five weeks of student and pupil protest. Minister Philippe Baptiste says there is a right to study but no right to blockade.

The Union syndicale lycéenne and the Union étudiante have called for blockades of schools and universities on Tuesday and Thursday next week. On 31 October 2026, Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson of the Union étudiante, called for blocking high schools and universities on the following Tuesday and Thursday, citing the legitimacy of their demands.

The route filed for the Saturday 31 October demonstration in Paris was banned by the police, yet the demonstration went ahead that day. According to Sabrine Kharbach, the call to block schools and universities was a reaction to that ban, and aimed to show the legitimacy of their demands. The call came after five weeks of mobilisation by students and high school pupils. On 26 October, ministers Philippe Baptiste and Edouard Geffray had presented an emergency plan, including replacing Parcoursup, capping seconde classes and reworking timetables.

Kharbach said the blockades would start on Tuesday and continue on Thursday, to be followed by a demonstration on 5 November at the call of workers. She said the authorities wanted to ban demonstrations every week and to ban processions that had always taken place in good conditions. In her words, students would show them they were wrong and that their demands were legitimate. She presented the 5 November march, called by workers, as the closing step of the sequence.

The president of the Union syndicale lycéenne said the union would support the blockades from Monday onwards. The two unions are calling for a national plan on school buildings. They are also demanding dignified and correct study conditions for students. Philippe Baptiste, the minister, answered that there is a right to demonstrate but that the right to blockade does not exist. He said he believes there is a right to study. The two national mobilisation days called by the unions fall on Tuesday and Thursday of next week.

The CFDT, CGT, FO, UNSA and FSU have called a strike for Thursday 5 November, for wages, public services, employment and industry across the public and private sectors.