Human rights defenders denounce unnecessary and disproportionate use of force.

On Tuesday, the French took to the streets again to protest President Emmanuel Macron’s budget cuts. Political brutality, however, is leaving indelible scars on students.

RELATED:

Student Protests Sweep France Over School Underfunding

Education Minister Edouard Geffray acknowledged that 190 students had been injured since the protests began. Since the figures do not distinguish between serious and minor injuries, his statements minimize the scale of the human rights violations.

A 15-year-old boy lost his hand after a police grenade exploded outside the Auguste-Behal high school in the northern town of Lens (Pas-de-Calais). It is still unclear what type of grenade it was or exactly how it caused the injury.

Police sources maintain that the boy appeared to have picked up the grenade, but that version has been denied by witnesses.

“I was there, I saw it. He didn’t pick it up,” a young woman said, while other witnesses told Le Monde that riot police had pushed protesters back before throwing the grenade, Novara Media reported.

This is how western democracy work on women.

In France police brutally attacked a woman protester and strangling her neck and causing suffocation. pic.twitter.com/3ZXeimEHfZ

— தமிழ் மார்க்ஸ் (@tamilmarxorg) October 6, 2026

But examples of police violence are not limited to that case. On Sept. 28, a police officer fired a tear gas grenade at close range at the face of a 14-year-old boy.

“Eden suffered a double jaw fracture; he has lost several lower teeth and all of his upper teeth are broken,” his lawyer, Elsa Marcel, said at a news conference. The teenager’s mother said he has severe difficulty eating because his jaw is locked and closed, leaving just enough space for a straw.

During protests against Macron’s policies, another 16-year-old boy lost sight in one eye after being hit by a rubber bullet.

As of Oct. 6, at least six judicial investigations into police violence had been opened since “a wave of student protests erupted at the start of the academic year over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and poor school conditions,” Novara Media recalled.

Plusieurs centaines de lycéens et étudiants font un sit-in devant un cordon de police sur la Place de la Nation à Paris.

Une Marseillaise est entonnée.#BlocusLycées #BlocusUniversités #Paris #6octobre pic.twitter.com/OuxV6Ao7zM

— Luc Auffret (@LucAuffret) October 6, 2026

The text reads, “Several hundred high school and university students are staging a sit-in in front of a police line at the Nation Square in Paris. The Marseillaise is being sung.”

Tens of Thousands Take to the Streets

On Tuesday, the student demonstration began at Republic Square in Paris. Today’s marches have been supported by unions such as the CGT — the second-largest union in terms of membership in France — and left-wing parties such as La France Insoumise (LFI) and the Socialist Party (PS).

“What you are doing is incredible. You don’t realize it. This is the most powerful youth movement France has seen in 50 years. And no one dares tell you that you are wrong, because you are absolutely right,” said Jean-Luc Melenchon, the 2027 LFI presidential candidate.

The Paris protest has a special security operation, with thousands of police officers and gendarmes in the streets, as well as the closure of 10 metro stations along the demonstration route between the Republic Square and The Nation Square.

The convergence of protests by students, unions and the left comes after the presentation of the 2027 budget plan by Sebastien Lecornu, who has been criticized for including austerity measures that the government justifies because of the country’s high debt, nearly 120 percent of GDP, and the pressure French bonds are facing in the markets.

This revolt by high school students, which began Sept. 17 at a high school on the outskirts of Paris and later spread throughout France, comes amid controversy over police violence against minors.

The use of unnecessary and disproportionate force by police has been denounced by human rights defenders, who have claimed that over 5,000 citizens have been arrested, 85 percent of whom are minors.

High school students marching from Place de la République to Pace de la Nation faced heavy police repression as security forces deployed tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowd. The march, organized by student unions, is part of a nationwide wave of protests against… pic.twitter.com/RyPYDxLR5J

— teleSUR English (@telesurenglish) October 6, 2026

teleSUR/ JF

Sources: Novara Media – EFE

---

From teleSUR English via This RSS Feed.