France protests: How a Gen Z school movement turned into a political war | The Verdict

The first world, as they like to call themselves, has often looked down upon the rest of the world. Yet, today France is seeing unprecedented protests over problems that should not have been there in a developed country.

What began as a Gen Z protest against the shortage of teachers, lack of facilities and overcrowded classrooms has turned into a full-blown political war with violence, burning schools and damaging infrastructure at the centre of it. 30% of the country's 3,600 high schools were affected at the start of this month. So far, 215 students and 85 school staff members have been injured in clashes.

Adding fuel to this is the rising anger against immigrants. Many in France say it is they who are resorting to violence. U.S. President Donald Trump even said, and I quote: "This isn't about schools, this is about Islam wanting to take over a once great country!"

The French government says its the leftists who have infiltrated these protests.

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So who is responsible? Well, successive French governments have received complaints about underfunding and teachers' workload. Then there is a massive difference between the elite private and the public schools. No government did much, and those who tried to faced the wrath of teachers' unions, who blocked systemic overhauls.

France's education ministry found that during the 2024-2025 school year, about 10% of teaching hours went untaught in public secondary schools. About 7.5% of the lost hours were due to a failure to find substitutes.

Genuine apolitical protests, almost always, end up becoming heavily political. So now, it's up to President Macron and PM Lecornu to weed out the infiltrators and listen to the students.