Student protests over crumbling schools despite billions in public spending are fueling a broader crisis in France, as experts warn that the country’s mounting financial troubles, President Emmanuel Macron’s weakened political center and radical movements are pushing the unrest far beyond its original educational grievances.
Simone Rodan-Benzaquen, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ senior envoy for Europe, told Fox News Digital in an interview from Paris that what began in September with legitimate complaints about school conditions has increasingly been exploited by political forces seeking confrontation with the state.
“Overall I’d say the anger is real but the violence I would say is organized,” she said, adding that destroying schools would do nothing to improve the education system.
FRANCE EXPLODES AGAIN AS STUDENTS RIOT OVER EDUCATION
Seventy-two percent of education expenditure went toward salaries, social contributions and pensions for teaching and non-teaching personnel, while just 8.5% went toward investment, including infrastructure and equipment. The figures cover the entire education system, not just high schools, according to France’s Education Ministry’s 2026 statistical overview.
Harvey Feigenbaum, a professor of political science and international affairs at George Washington University and an expert on French politics, told Fox News Digital that France’s underlying problem is a government caught between expensive social commitments, sluggish economic growth and mounting pressure to cut spending.
“France is in deep debt. It wants to cut its expenses,” Feigenbaum said, explaining that years of financial pressure and neglected school facilities have fueled frustration among students.
The scale of the financial predicament is striking. According to Eurostat, French public debt stood at 117.6% of GDP in the first quarter of 2026, the third-highest ratio in the European Union, behind Greece and Italy.
Reuters reported October 8 that rising borrowing costs and investor concerns have severely limited the government’s ability to resolve unrest through additional spending, a strategy employed during previous waves of French protests.
The financial squeeze has collided with an increasingly fragmented political system, creating opportunities for parties at both ends of the political spectrum to capitalize on public dissatisfaction.
FRENCH SCHOOL RIOTS DEEPEN AS EXPERTS POINT TO FAR-LEFT ALLIANCE FUELING BROADER CONFRONTATION
For Feigenbaum, the long-term roots of the crisis lie in Macron’s political legacy.
When Macron won the presidency in 2017, he promised to move beyond France’s traditional left-right divide, combining policies from both sides into a new centrist political movement.
But Feigenbaum argues that the strategy produced an unintended consequence: weakening France’s established moderate
