France’s school protests: LFI backing is clear, nationwide control is not established

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu has accused allies of the left-wing La France insoumise (LFI) party of exploiting the first high-school protests in Val-de-Marne, near Paris. But he told the Senate on 14 October that the movement had subsequently spread without LFI. That distinction matters ahead of next year’s presidential election: LFI’s public support for the pupils is clear, but it does not establish that the party organised the nationwide protests. [1]

Lecornu was responding to Green senator Mélanie Vogel, who argued that pupils did not need politicians to explain their anger. He said part of the political class was trying to capitalise on the movement for electoral purposes. His government had made a broader allegation on 1 October, describing the unrest as an organised manoeuvre by LFI and groups close to it, and invoking intelligence reports. [1] [3]

There is visible political involvement. LFI MP Louis Boyard called for the school movement to spread. The party’s presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, urged LFI representatives and activists to place themselves between pupils and police during interventions at school blockades. Student protesters also appeared on stage at his campaign rally on 11 October, according to the Associated Press. Mélenchon says his party is not organising the movement and wants it to remain peaceful. [5] [8]

One intelligence note cited in reporting about the government’s allegation concerns a different department from the one Lecornu named in the Senate. According to *Le Journal du Dimanche*, the note recorded 27 actions outside schools in Seine-Saint-Denis between 21 and 25 September. It mentioned trade unionists, students or left-wing elected representatives at six of them. *Le Monde*, which also says it saw the note, reported that its scope was limited to Seine-Saint-Denis. Presence at a protest does not, by itself, show who organised it; those 27 actions cannot establish how the movement was run across France. [4]