France school protests spread as two teachers shot in Aubagne

Student protests that began in mid-September over teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated facilities continued to disrupt France on 12 October, with 130 of the country’s 3,700 lycees still closed. Eight school staff were injured in separate incidents on 12 October, the education ministry said, adding that ‘the violence is intensifying’. President Emmanuel Macron urged calm, saying grievances ‘deserve time, consultations, discussion, and respect’, while the government promised 3,000 substitute teachers for the worst-affected schools. The national students’ union dismissed the move as ‘crumbs’ and demanded a 10-billion-euro ($11-billion) boost for lycees.

In Aubagne near Marseille, police arrested a 14-year-old student on 12 October after the school’s headmaster and a female teacher were shot with a hunting rifle. Both were hospitalised with non-life-threatening wounds. Police treated the shooting as a separate crime, not linked to the protests. Nationwide demonstrations were called for 13 October by the far-left France Unbowed party, followed by wider cost-of-living protests on 10 October. The police have opened internal investigations into 24 allegations of brutality since the movement began in September 2026. More than 6,800 people, largely minors, have been taken into police custody, the justice ministry said.

Economic Times reported that Neville Roy Singham’s alleged funding links to the French protests had surfaced, a detail not mentioned by other outlets. The protests have spread to Belgium, Greece and Italy, becoming a growing political challenge for Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, according to Economic Times.