A student checks her smartphone in front of the Helene Boucher high school blockaded with garbage bins during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo)
Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined high school pupils campaigning for better learning conditions in France on Oct. 13 ahead of fresh nationwide demonstrations, with authorities and participants wary of further violence.
The 23-year-old, who became famous as a teen for school strikes to demand action on climate change, stood among pupils demonstrating outside a school at the heart of the movement in the capital’s largest suburb of Saint-Denis.
Thunberg arrived at the Paul Eluard high school, as lawyers in their robes formed a human chain to protect teens after numerous allegations of police brutality.
“Young people are not being included in the conversation. Our future is being robbed away from us,” Thunberg told AFP.
The mobilization, which is backed by unions and the far-left opposition France Unbowed party, included a midday march through Paris, along with marches in other cities.
“They’re not listening to us, so we’re going to them,” university student union l’Union etudiante wrote on X.
More than 70,000 people took to the streets on Oct. 8 in the last major event of a movement that sprung up in late September.
French authorities had been hoping that the protests would start to ease ahead of midterm holidays.
“We should be at around 200 schools closed, which is fewer than last week,” Education Minister Edouard Geffray said on France Inter on Oct. 13 morning, adding some near protest routes were closing to avoid damage.
French students say they are determined to press the government to address the problems of too many absent teachers, dilapidated buildings, overcrowded class schedules and other grievances.
The protests since last month have mostly been peaceful, but seen clashes occasionally break out with police.
