Why has France struggled to address students’ demands?

Protesters demand more spending in education and social services but the government has struggled amid fiscal crisis.

A protester holds a placard reading ‘Tax the rich’ during a demonstration in favour of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris, France, on October 24 [Aris Messinis/AFP]

Young people in France continued their nationwide protests over the weekend, demanding better education facilities and a promising future amid the rising cost of living in the country.

France’s Ministry of Interior said 410,000 people protested nationwide on Saturday, including 110,000 in Paris, as the government has struggled to address the issues raised by the student-led protests.

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France was also roiled by nearly two years of protests beginning in 2018 over the high cost of living and opposition to French President Emmanuel Macron’s economic policies. Those protests, which were led by the Yellow Vests movement , demanded that the government address the rising economic inequality, boost welfare and public services, and tax the rich.

As the young protesters take to the streets, many of the old demands remain unfulfilled. So, why have French politicians been unable to address the issues facing the country?

Here’s what we know:

Why are young people in France protesting now?

The youth-led protests in France erupted last month amid deteriorating conditions in schools, broader economic anxieties and opposition to government budget cuts.

The protests began in mid-September after high school students blockaded campuses over overcrowded classrooms (often 32–35 pupils per room), unreplaced teacher absences, and dilapidated building infrastructure.

Protesters have waved placards reading statements like “We have a future to build, not to endure”, as they expressed frustration with shrinking public resources and state investment.

Teachers have also joined the students protesting over low salaries. French teachers are paid less on average than their counterparts in other European countries like Germany, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Education at a Glance 2026 report.

School teachers in France earn a gross salary of 41,968 euros ($46,900) per annum compared with 69,453 euros ($77,700) for their German counterparts. Social taxes, high pension contributions and the rising cost of living eat into their monthly income.

What started as a localised strike over school resources has since drawn in trade unions as well as civil servants, and the protests have evolved into a broader economic and political crisis.

This is due to discontent over the government’s proposed 54-billion-euro ($60bn) package of cost-cutting and tax measures for the 2027 budget, which includes civil servant salary freezes.

Students and youth fear bearing the brunt of public spending reductions amid a multidecade high in poverty rates and rising costs of living, exacerbated by the United States-Israel war on Iran.

Currently, according to Amine Snoussi, a journalist for Le Media TV and a former parliamentary assistant at the French National Assembly, the condition of public high schools is dire since government money is being spent elsewhere.

“Students are studying in cold, dirty buildings, some of them infested with rats. In some schools, absent teachers haven’t been replaced for over six months. And all of this is happening while thousands of teaching jobs are being cut, and while public money keeps flowing to private schools. That’s what lit the fuse,” he told Al Jazeera.

What has been the government’s response?

The French government has responded to the mass protests by imposing curfews and deploying police across the country to crack down on protesters.

President Macron has blamed ultra-left groups for trying to “bring down the Republic” and threatened accountability for those involved in violence.

On Friday, the French leader met representatives of the student movement for the first time since the protests began.

But the meeting failed to defuse tensions, with student representatives calling for further mobilisation until the government presents concrete actions.

On Monday, during a visit to Marseille, Macron said he has “asked the government to address the legitimate demands at the root of this protest movement”.

The government is also expected to announce changes to Parcoursup, France’s national online university admissions platform, according to French media reports.

Why is the French government struggling to address protesters’ demands?

Analysts say the French government is struggling to address students’ demands due to a severe fiscal crisis and planned budget cuts, which have led to a drop in the country’s education budget.

According to data published by French economist and co-director of the World Inequality Lab Lucas Chancel, “The public budget for higher education, student life, and research (relative to the total number of students in France, once inflation is taken into account) has decreased by 20 percent since 2017.”

The French government has defended the budget cuts.

In an address to the nation on October 7, French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu acknowledged that “the anger among young people didn’t come out of nowhere” and promised the government would present a plan to address the crisis by the end of October.

The French prime minister has also asked his ministers to check spending as France’s national debt has ballooned to about 3.6 trillion euros ($4 trillion), which is equivalent to 119 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

Of greater concern to markets than the total debt is France’s growing deficit, however, which is expected to reach 5.4 percent of GDP in 2026 – far above the European Union average of just more than 3 percent. This is the amount by which a government’s spending exceeds its income.

But in a report, French economist and professor Thomas Piketty noted that while public debt has increased, the country’s private wealth has also grown from “300 percent to 600 percent of GDP, with extreme concentration among the wealthiest financial fortunes”.

“In other words, France has never been richer. The problem to solve is simply one of distribution,” he added.

Does France have a wealth distribution problem?

France has relatively low to moderate income inequality, but wealth redistribution has been an issue of debate, particularly in left-wing political groups.

People aged 60 and older, who form a quarter of the population, own 60 percent of the country’s wealth (non-financial and financial), according to a January 2026 review by prominent French economic policy think tank OFCE.

A huge chunk of government funds go to service social security.

A government report seen by the Reuters news agency earlier this month also noted that nearly one-third of some French ministries’ budgets pay for the pensions of retired civil ‌servants, which reduces spending on education and other priorities.

Snoussi told Al Jazeera that the wealth distribution question has always been central to current French politics.

“Macron is called the rich people’s president for a reason. He always supports rich people and has never managed to create a form of equality between classes,” he said.

Macron has been branded “the president of the rich” for cutting the wealth tax. He has also faced criticism for his economic policies aimed at modernising the economy and creating jobs. His decision to impose a fuel tax triggered the 2018 so-called Yellow Vests protests, a grassroots movement seeking government intervention to address inequality.

Critics say his policies resulted in redistribution of wealth upward and affected the working-class population. But Macron has defended his policies, particularly his decision on wealth tax, saying that forcing the wealthy out of the country won’t help the poor.

“I don’t believe in this French jealousy which says, ‘There are rich people; let’s tax them and we will all feel better,’” he told The New York Times in a 2017 interview.

Antonio Fatas, a professor of economics at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France, told Al Jazeera: “France has a more redistributive system than other European countries – at least similar”.

He explained that redistribution is a set of programmes of taxes and transfers that redistribute income from high-income individuals towards lower-income individuals.

The real issue, Fatas said, is deeper.

“France’s growth has been limited for years. With low growth, it is not hard to imagine parts of the population that are unhappy with the progress they see, and this leads to demands for a solution in the form of government support or redistribution,” he said.

France is currently facing significant fiscal stress, with its annual budget deficit forecast at 5.4 percent of its GDP, well above the standard European Union ceiling of 3 percent. The country also remains heavily backed by its public sector, with state expenditures consuming roughly 57 percent of its total GDP – including a notable 14 percent allocated strictly towards worker pensions.

“The assumption is that someone out there is rich enough that they can be taxed. While I can imagine in a more progressive system in France, one has to be careful about the limitations of these apparent solutions,” Fatas added.

So how should the government respond?

In his opinion column for the French newspaper Le Monde, Piketty wrote that reinvesting in sectors like education and health should be the government’s priority.

“Reinvesting in these sectors today is not simply a matter of equality between regions or social classes,” he wrote, highlighting that such reinvestment would help an economy produce greater output by using fewer resources.

Snoussi shared a similar view.

“The government has a simple choice: invest, or step aside,” he said.

“But the real question is whether Macron even wants a way out. Or is he hoping the situation gets worse, so he can crush the movement through police and judicial repression?”

Fatas, the economics professor, noted that while there are a lot of good things people in France want the government to do, it is important to prioritise which sector requires funding.

“The government spending [in France] is the largest among advanced economies, so there is little room to just spend the way out of this.

“France faces a political paralysis when it comes to reform decisions, and this is the reason why they are in a more difficult situation than others,” he added.

抗议者要求增加教育和社会服务方面的支出，但政府在财政危机中举步维艰。

10月24日，在法国巴黎，一名抗议者举着写有“向富人征税”的标语牌，参加支持购买力、保护公共服务以及财政和社会正义的示威活动。[Aris Messinis/AFP]

周末期间，法国青年继续在全国范围内举行抗议活动，要求改善教育设施，并在生活成本不断上涨的情况下拥有更有希望的未来。

法国内政部表示，周六全国共有 41 万人参加抗议活动，其中巴黎有 11 万人。此前，政府一直在努力解决学生领导的抗议活动提出的问题。

列表 1/3：欧洲的抗议活动能否带来改变？

列表 2/3：玛丽娜·勒庞誓言法国“复兴”，极右翼觊觎权力中心

列表 3/3：法国政府躲在“骚乱”叙事背后

法国也经历了近两年的抗议活动，这些抗议活动始于2018年，起因是高昂的生活成本和对法国总统马克龙经济政策的反对。这些由“黄背心”运动领导的抗议活动要求政府解决日益严重的经济不平等问题，提高社会福利和公共服务水平，并对富人征税。

当年轻的抗议者走上街头时，许多旧诉求仍然没有得到满足。那么，为什么法国政客们一直无法解决国家面临的问题呢？

我们目前掌握的情况如下：

为什么法国的年轻人现在要举行抗议活动？

上个月，法国爆发了由青年领导的抗议活动，起因是学校状况恶化、经济焦虑情绪蔓延以及民众反对政府削减预算。

抗议活动始于 9 月中旬，当时高中生封锁了校园，抗议教室过度拥挤（通常每个房间有 32 至 35 名学生）、教师缺勤无人顶替以及破旧的建筑基础设施。

抗议者挥舞着写有“我们有未来要建设，而不是忍受”等标语的牌子，表达了他们对公共资源和国家投资减少的不满。

教师们也加入了学生抗议低薪的行列。根据经济合作与发展组织发布的《2026年教育概览》报告，法国教师的平均收入低于德国等其他欧洲国家的同行。

法国教师的年薪总额为41,968欧元（约合46,900美元），而德国教师的年薪总额为69,453欧元（约合77,700美元）。社会税、高额养老金缴款以及不断上涨的生活成本都会蚕食他们的月收入。

最初因学校资源问题而引发的局部罢工，后来牵扯到工会和公务员，抗议活动演变成一场更广泛的经济和政治危机。

这是由于民众对政府提出的 2027 年预算案中价值 540 亿欧元（600 亿美元）的成本削减和税收措施方案不满，该方案包括冻结公务员工资。

在贫困率居高不下数十年、生活成本不断上涨的情况下，学生和青年担心公共支出削减会成为他们的主要负担，而美以对伊朗的战争更是加剧了这种情况。

据法国媒体电视台记者、法国国民议会前议会助理阿明·斯努西称，目前公立高中的状况十分糟糕，因为政府资金被花在了其他地方。

“学生们在又冷又脏的教学楼里上课，有些教学楼里鼠患成灾。在一些学校，缺勤的教师已经超过六个月没有得到补位。与此同时，成千上万的教师岗位被裁撤，公共资金却源源不断地流向私立学校。这就是引爆问题的导火索，”他告诉半岛电视台。

政府对此作何回应？

法国政府对大规模抗议活动的回应是实施宵禁，并在全国范围内部署警察镇压抗议者。

马克龙总统指责极左翼团体试图“推翻共和国”，并威胁要追究参与暴力活动者的责任。

周五，这位法国领导人自抗议活动开始以来首次会见了学生运动的代表。

但此次会议未能缓解紧张局势，学生代表呼吁进一步动员，直到政府提出具体行动。

周一，马克龙在访问马赛期间表示，他已“要求政府解决这场抗议运动根源上的合理诉求”。

据法国媒体报道，政府预计还将宣布对法国国家在线大学招生平台 Parcoursup 进行改革。

为什么法国政府难以回应抗议者的诉求？

分析人士表示，由于严重的财政危机和计划中的预算削减，法国政府难以满足学生的要求，导致该国教育预算下降。

根据法国经济学家、世界不平等实验室联合主任卢卡斯·尚塞尔公布的数据，“自 2017 年以来，高等教育、学生生活和研究的公共预算（相对于法国学生总数，考虑到通货膨胀因素）减少了 20%”。

法国政府为削减预算辩护。

10月7日，法国总理塞巴斯蒂安·勒科尔努在向全国发表讲话时承认，“年轻人的愤怒并非凭空而来”，并承诺政府将在10月底前提出应对危机的计划。

法国总理还要求他的部长们控制支出，因为法国的国家债务已经膨胀到约 3.6 万亿欧元（4 万亿美元），相当于该国国内生产总值 (GDP) 的 119%。

然而，比总债务更令市场担忧的是法国不断增长的财政赤字，预计到2026年，法国的财政赤字将达到GDP的5.4%，远高于欧盟略高于3%的平均水平。财政赤字是指政府支出超过其收入的金额。

但法国经济学家兼教授托马斯·皮凯蒂在一份报告中指出，虽然公共债务有所增加，但该国的私人财富也从“GDP的300%增长到600%，而且极度集中在最富有的金融家手中”。

“换句话说，法国从未像现在这样富裕。需要解决的问题其实就是分配问题，”他补充道。

法国是否存在财富分配不均的问题？

法国的收入不平等程度相对较低，但财富再分配一直是争论的焦点，尤其是在左翼政治团体中。

根据法国著名经济政策智库 OFCE 2026 年 1 月的一项评估，60 岁及以上的人口占总人口的四分之一，拥有该国 60% 的财富（非金融财富和金融财富）。

政府资金的很大一部分用于社会保障。

路透社本月早些时候看到的一份政府报告也指出，法国一些部委近三分之一的预算用于支付退休公务员的养老金，这减少了教育和其他优先事项的支出。

斯努西告诉半岛电视台，财富分配问题一直是法国当前政治的核心问题。

他说：“马克龙被称为富人的总统是有原因的。他总是支持富人，从未真正实现过阶级平等。”

马克龙因削减财富税而被贴上“富人总统”的标签。他旨在实现经济现代化和创造就业的经济政策也饱受诟病。他决定征收燃油税，引发了2018年的“黄背心”运动，这是一场旨在寻求政府干预以解决不平等问题的草根运动。

批评人士称，他的政策导致财富向上转移，损害了工薪阶层的利益。但马克龙为自己的政策辩护，特别是关于财富税的决定，称将富人驱逐出境对穷人没有帮助。

“我不相信法国人那种嫉妒心理，他们认为‘有钱人，让我们向他们征税，这样我们大家都会感觉更好’，”他在 2017 年接受《纽约时报》采访时说道。

法国枫丹白露INSEAD经济学教授安东尼奥·法塔斯告诉半岛电视台：“法国的再分配制度比其他欧洲国家更完善——至少与之类似。”

他解释说，再分配是一系列税收和转移支付方案，旨在将高收入人群的收入重新分配给低收入人群。

法塔斯说，真正的问题在于更深层次的原因。

“法国的经济增长多年来一直受到限制。在低增长的情况下，不难想象部分民众对他们所看到的进步感到不满，这导致他们要求政府提供援助或进行财富再分配来解决问题，”他说。

法国目前面临严重的财政压力，预计年度预算赤字将占GDP的5.4%，远高于欧盟3%的标准上限。此外，法国仍然高度依赖公共部门，国家支出约占GDP的57%，其中高达14%专门用于支付员工养老金。

“人们的假设是，总有人足够富有，可以对他们征税。虽然我能想象在法国更进步的制度下，这些看似可行的解决方案也存在局限性，”法塔斯补充道。

那么政府应该如何应对？

皮凯蒂在法国《世界报》的专栏文章中写道，政府应该优先考虑对教育和卫生等领域进行再投资。

他写道：“如今对这些领域的再投资不仅仅是地区或社会阶层之间的平等问题”，并强调这种再投资将有助于经济体用更少的资源生产出更大的产出。

斯努西也持类似观点。

他说：“政府面临一个简单的选择：要么投资，要么袖手旁观。”

“但真正的问题是，马克龙是否真的想要找到出路。还是他希望局势恶化，以便通过警察和司法镇压来摧毁这场运动？”

经济学教授法塔斯指出，虽然法国人民希望政府做很多好事，但重要的是要确定哪个领域需要资金支持。

“法国政府支出在发达经济体中是最大的，因此几乎没有空间通过增加支出来摆脱困境。”

他补充说：“法国在改革决策方面面临政治瘫痪，这就是他们比其他国家处境更加艰​​难的原因。”