Can French teenagers still bend a government?

For almost three weeks, French high school students have been blockading their own schools. They want more teachers, smaller classes and buildings that don't fall apart. French students have made governments back down before, in 1986 and in 2006, when there was one law to drop. In 2023 they lost. This time there is no law, only a budget, and a government without a majority that says there is no money.

We go from one Paris high school wrapped in safety netting to the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and the left trade blame for the violence. What the government is offering, what the students say it would take, and why students in Belgium and Italy are on the streets too.

Everything in this episode comes from published reporting and the public record. Where people disagree, you'll hear who says what.

Reporting: Assemblée nationale, the French ministries of justice, education and the interior, AFP, Reuters, ANSA, RFI, France Inter, Franceinfo, Europe 1, BFM, ici, LCP, Les Echos, Café pédagogique, Ouest-France, Midi Libre, L'Etudiant, France 24, Sud Ouest, CNews, CGT, Direction générale du Trésor, DEPP, Conseil constitutionnel, Élysée, Public Sénat, Nouvel Obs, CNBC, Euronews, RTBF, Belga, Le Soir, L'Avenir.

Archive sound: Archives audiovisuelles de l'Assemblée nationale (6 October 2026, 9 February 2006, 16 March 2023), CLPRESS (6 October), L'Union Étudiante (1 October).