What to expect this week from school protests rattling France's government

PARIS (AP) — After a weekend lull, high schoolers in France are expected back at the barricades this coming week in their protest movement that is rattling the government of President Emmanuel Macron.

A key question is whether violence on the margins of the demonstrations will worsen, blurring the lines between protest and rioting, and whether Macron's government will ratchet up the already muscular response by police. According to the interior minister, officers made more than 5,000 arrests last week, 85% of them minors. Hundreds have been injured.

A test of the movement's endurance and appeal will come Tuesday, when the influential CGT labor union is urging workers to demonstrate, too.

Here's what to know:

Protests first erupted in the Paris region in mid-September. Teachers and students mobilized against a lack of staff at a lycée, or high school, in Creteil, in the southeastern outskirts of the French capital. From there, class strikes, blockades and demonstrations spread to other Paris suburbs and then nationwide, with protests even in high schools of smaller towns.

Hundreds of schools have had to close because of damage or attacks that targeted staff, according to the education minister. More than 170 pupils and 65 staff members have suffered injuries, he says.

From the outset, pupils focused on perceived inequalities in the school system, saying that teaching, facilities and opportunities for advancement aren’t as good for students in disadvantaged neighborhoods — despite the promise of France's national motto: “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity.”

Placards held up by the first protesters in Creteil read “Too many inequalities, we’re disgusted,” “Education is a right, not a privilege,” and “Sorry to bother, it’s for our future,” according to photos posted by Clémence Guetté, the district's lawmaker at the National Assembly, France's parliament.

Pupils elsewhere complained that during summer heat waves, they roast in classrooms without air-conditioning, and they freeze in winter. French media broadcast videos of scampering rats, collapsed ceilings, leaks, broken furniture and other woes filmed in dilapidated schools.

"The public needs to know that conditions for studying are no longer what they were for us,” said Sophie Bordy, a 50-year-old literature teacher in Paris. "It has deteriorated significantly.”

Still, spending on education is one of the costliest items in the state budget that Macron’s government is proposing for 2027. It earmarked 65.5 billion euros ($74 billion) for schools, more than the 63.4 billion euros for defense.

Pupils also complain of long hours. In high schools, classes often start at 8 a.m. and can last to the early evening. French high schoolers’ compulsory school hours are among the highest in Europe, according to European Union figures.

“I see the teachers more than my family,” read one young girl's placard photographed by Le Parisien newspaper.

Guetté, the lawmaker who posted photos of herself meeting with the first protesters in Creteil, bullhorn in hand, is a rising star of the far-left France Unbowed party. Other France Unbowed lawmakers and elected officials also quickly identified with the protests, meeting with pupils and backing their demands.

France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon urged party members and supporters to protect pupils from the police, by putting themselves in between the two sides.

Mélenchon has denounced what he called the “savagery” of police officers who have liberally used tear gas and their batons to break up crowds. Police riot-control projectiles are suspected in some facial injuries that young protesters suffered.

Critics of Mélenchon accuse France Unbowed of stoking and manipulating the pupils for political gain. Mélenchon, a fiery anti-capitalist, says his party supports the movement but isn’t organizing it and wants it to be non-violent.

Mélenchon, 75, is making his fourth run for the French presidency and is wooing young voters. They tended to vote less than other age groups in the last presidential election in 2022 but could potentially help Mélenchon qualify for the decisive second-round runoff in May — a success that has always escaped him — if he can mobilize them to turn out.

“What we want is for this country’s young people to emerge from this episode with their heads held high, having won something and learned something, and to remember it when they cast their ballots,” Mélenchon said Thursday.

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Associated Press journalist Oleg Cetinic in Paris contributed.

Policemen face students during a protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Students run through teargas as they face policemen during a protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

A student hold a board reading "We want to be supported, not overburdened" during protest against under-resourced schools in front of a high school blockade, in Lyon, France, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

A student runs out the teargas during a protest against under-resourced schools in Lyon, France, Friday, Oct. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

AKROPONG-AKUAPEM, Ghana (AP) — The Indigenous Akuapem people in eastern Ghana celebrated this week their military victory over the Ashanti Empire 200 years ago, a vast, sprawling and powerful 18th-century West African state.

The battle helped reshape the area into what has become part of modern Ghana.

The empire might be long gone, but the battle has not faded from memory. Two centuries later, the Akuapem people still come together to honor their victory by reenacting the war.

The festival, called Akuapem Odwira, is also a means of purification, spiritual renewal and thanksgiving, they say.

The two-week-long celebration, which started on Sept. 21, has featured an array of pageantry, a re-enactment and a durbar, or ceremonial gathering.

Both royalty and subjects engaging in the festivities were draped in traditional Kente cloth. Gold ornaments glinted in the afternoon sun as drums rolled through the streets and the chiefs arrived on decorated palanquins carried by attendants. Praise singers and dancers performed around the clock in the streets.

On the 10th day of the celebration, young men dressed as warriors marched from the palace into the hills and forest for the re-enactment of the battle, fought on Aug. 7, 1826.

The performers climbed a steep mountain into the forest, following the route toward the area where the battle is believed to have taken place. At a stream, libations were poured and other rituals performed.

Some participants, acting as captured enemy soldiers, were chained and led back toward the community, where crowds gathered to receive them before they were presented to the chief.

Nanahemaa Adwoa Awindor, the Queen Mother in charge of developmental activities, said the bicentennial anniversary was important because it showed how culture can survive across generations.

“Two hundred years of Odwira represents far more than the passage of time. It is a remarkable testimony to the resilience of the people, the continuity of tradition, and the enduring power of culture to bind generations together,” she said.

For younger generations, the anniversary has also become a means to reconnect with a heritage they say is too easily overlooked.

Kingsley Ketegu, a 36-year-old Akuapem resident who took part in the celebrations, said young people should use such occasions to learn about their history.

“As young people, we should embrace this and learn our culture,” he said. “Odwira is a very big festival. Very, very big. But we have underrated it.”

A chief dances at the Akuapem State's 200th anniversary celebration of the Odwira Festival in Akropong, Ghana, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo)

People march through their community during the re-enactment of the Akatamanso War as part of the Odwira Festival celebrations in Larteh, Ghana, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 . (AP Photo)

Children participate in a re-enactment of the Akatamanso War during the Odwira Festival celebrations in Larteh, Ghana, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 . (AP Photo)

Queen Mothers attend the Akuapem State's 200th anniversary celebration of the Odwira Festival on Friday, Sept. 25, 2026 in Akropong, Ghana. (AP Photo)

Youth march in a forest during a re-enactment of the Akatamanso War as part of the Odwira Festival celebrations in Larteh, Ghana, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026 . (AP Photo)