Policing of France's school protests clouds Macron's final months and sparks uproar

PARIS (AP) — On one side, legions of determined teenagers protesting for their future by blockading schools and taking part in marches that have sometimes spiraled into violence.

On the other, one of the largest internal security forces in Europe, deployed by the government of an unpopular and outgoing president.

The result, playing out almost daily outside high schools and on the streets of France, is a nationwide storm of unrest. The mayhem of recent weeks — with mass arrests and hundreds of injured — has sparked an uproar in a country steeped in a centuries-old culture of protest. Even some police have turned on the government's handling of the demonstrations.

For President Emmanuel Macron, who leaves office in May, it’s hardly the dream ending to his decade in power. He has faced a succession of protest movements that sapped his popularity and fueled broad criticism of how his ministers use police against demonstrators.

With the high schoolers, the outcry has grown particularly loud. That's partly because the vast majority of the 8,000 people arrested in recent weeks are teenagers under 18 and because police riot-control weapons are blamed for life-changing injuries suffered by some young teens.

The protesters' push for better-resourced schools, particularly in poorer Paris suburbs and other cities and towns, also has a sympathetic audience as France hurts from record poverty and record public debt.

But police complain that they're facing violent rioters who are latching onto the protests and using the crowds as cover to attack officers, pelting them with rocks, fireworks and other projectiles and wreaking havoc with fires, vandalism and other destruction. By the government's count, more than 900 officers and nearly 150 teachers and other school staffers have been wounded.

French history partly explains why protests are veering into confrontations between riot police and some demonstrators who come ready to fight in masks and black clothes, says Walid Hrar, a police officer and union representative in the northern suburbs of Paris.

“This is the country of the French Revolution. Everyone boasts about it, in fact. Some political parties don’t hesitate to say that we need to disobey the law. That’s what Robespierre and other revolutionaries taught us in 1789,” he said.

“France always tends to react rather than anticipate,” he added. "In other words, we’re always going to extremes.”

The police have drawn sharp scrutiny for their efforts to control crowds using a variety of so-called non-lethal weaponry, particularly grenades and other projectiles, but also tear gas, water cannons and riot shields equipped with powerful strobe lights.

"We’re sending poorly equipped, untrained public security police officers to violent demonstrations who are likely to become agitated very quickly out of anger and fear,” said Jean-Marie Godard, an author who specializes in French policing.

Hrar said some of his police colleagues “aren’t specialized in crowd control and aren’t equipped for it. We send them in because we need the manpower, so we have officers wearing uniforms that aren’t flame-resistant. And if you’re hit by a firework mortar and your uniform isn’t flame-resistant, you can catch fire. We also have officers with worn-out helmets. We have shields that aren’t suitable."

He said officers who haven't been given permission to use riot-control projectiles and grenades sometimes struggle to keep attackers at a safe distance.

“So unfortunately we make do,” he said. “You’ll inevitably end up in direct physical confrontation. When that happens, there are injuries on both sides.”

His Alliance police union announced this week that it is filing a legal complaint against the state, accusing it of endangering lives. It alleged that officers are being issued with vague and contradictory orders, leaving them “isolated, betrayed, abandoned, exposed to violence."

French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said this week that security forces have used crowd-control weapons at least 18,000 times during the protests — mostly smoke and tear gas but also projectiles and grenades.

They include a deafening launcher-fired grenade that Nunez said was used “about 40 times” before he suspended its deployment against high schoolers, after a 15-year-old lost a hand.

“All this equipment, all these forces, all these intermediate weapons, are used whenever necessary, with proportionality, to mark an escalation of the response, to keep people at a distance or sometimes to put them out of action,” he said.

The minister said rules governing the use of riot-control projectiles are “very clear, very strict.”

“We avoid everything above the neck,” he said.

Still, an officer suspected of firing a round that partially blinded a 16-year-old was this week charged with aggravated violence.

That case is among a growing number of investigations — totaling 36 as of Tuesday — into alleged police misconduct.

Four involve “mutilating injuries,” another six involve “significant injuries” and others are for “blows, insults and suspected sexual assaults” and include the case of an officer accused of attempting to drown a protester, Nunez said.

France has more than 250,000 police and gendarmes.

Sebastian Roché, a policing specialist at France's National Center for Scientific Research, said their use can depend on the political needs of the government, which commands them. Officers have been less forgiving with the teenagers than they previously were with farmers, a powerful lobby in France, who doused government buildings with manure, blocked roads and set fires.

“It’s the political definition of the movement that defines the police response,” Roché said.

Public perceptions of the police also change and are influenced by what people see on social media, said Hrar, who noted that officers were applauded for their bravery during terror attacks in 2015.

"When you bombard people every single day with images of police intervening with batons, shields and tear gas, you’re inevitably going to create a negative impression.”

McNeil reported from Brussels.

A person holds a French national flag during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Students holds a board reading "Who protects us from the police?" as they stand in front of the Helene Boucher high school blockaded during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)

Police face students after a march to protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Police run towards students during a march to protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

Police faces students after a march to protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Tuesday Oct. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's major U.S. Senate candidates clashed over the Iran war, soaring consumer prices and personal credibility Thursday during a high-stakes debate in a contest that will play into control of the closely divided chamber.

Two-term Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan said the war needs to end soon, and he wants the Strait of Hormuz to open and a deal to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Democrat Mary Peltola, a former congresswoman, said an agreement is “so far out of sight” and lamented the deaths of 20 military personnel.

“This war is driving up our energy bills and hurting Alaskans with no end in sight,” she said.

Sullivan said the best way to bring down energy costs “is to produce more Alaskan energy by and for Alaskans.”

The debate followed contours of Senate contests around the country, with Peltola blaming the Trump administration for rising gas and consumer prices and pulling back from traditional alliances around the globe, while Sullivan warned that Democratic leadership in Congress would undercut the military and curb domestic energy production.

The debate also took on an edgy, deeply personal tone, as the candidates repeatedly accused each other of being dishonest or misleading.

“I think that Alaskans have had it up to here with the lying and the dishonesty,” Peltola said at one point, addressing her rival.

Sullivan repeatedly accused Peltola of lying throughout their campaign and said “it’s revealed character challenges.”

Foreign conflicts and their impact at home produced some of the sharpest exchanges.

Asked about Ukraine and President Donald Trump's deal to buy Russian diesel, Peltola said, “I think it’s so important that we stand with Ukraine and our allies. We have been making new adversaries out of our traditional allies across the globe.”

“I think we should be doing everything in our power to help support them, not bolstering up Russia,” she added.

Sullivan said he was a strong supporter of Ukraine, then said Democrats were always “cutting our military, undermining readiness.”

Peltola appeared to be reading from note cards during several of her answers, at one prompting Sullivan to question the moderators and say he didn’t think the candidates were supposed to get questions ahead of time. A moderator said they did not.

Visits by Trump on Tuesday to conservative Wasilla and by Vice President JD Vance the week before to Fairbanks, the hometown of Sullivan’s wife, underscore the stakes involved as both parties seek control of the chamber. Alaska last elected a Democrat to the Senate in 2008.

The contest is playing out in a turbulent political year in which voter angst over the Iran war, soaring gas and diesel prices and a rising cost of living have put the House and Senate up for grabs.

Before the debate, noisy supporters of both candidates gathered with signs — and at least one bullhorn — outside the Alaska Public Media studios.

There was a brief moment of agreement when the candidates were asked about the possibility of a third Trump term in the White House. Sullivan said it would be unconstitutional, and Peltola said that the law was clear, “Two terms for every president.”

The race also includes two Republicans who have done virtually no campaigning, including another Dan Sullivan. To participate in Thursday's debate, candidates had to win at least 5% of the vote in August's open primary.

Dan J. Sullivan, a retired teacher who dominated attention ahead of the primary and was called a sham candidate by the senator and his allies, including Trump, finished third with about 2.5% of the vote. Dan J. Sullivan said he received no invitations to any candidate forums.

The incumbent finished second to Peltola in the August primary, in which the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, advanced to the ranked vote general election. Sullivan, a retired Marine, said the race comes down to record, vision and character.

“I saw her up close and personal. It wasn’t pretty,” he told reporters after the debate, referring to Peltola’s time in office.

He said Peltola was ineffective during her time in Congress. But in an interview Wednesday, Peltola said she worked well with Sullivan as part of Alaska’s three-member congressional delegation and said he was engaging in “kind of revisionist history.”

“Our delegation worked so well together the two years that I was there,” she said, citing as accomplishments the approval of the major Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Peltola won special and regular elections for the state’s only House seat in 2022 before losing reelection in 2024.

Associated Press writer Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

In this photo shot with a smart phone, Democrat Mary Peltola smiles ahead of a debate with Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

In this photo shot with a smart phone, Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan poses ahead of a debate with Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska's Senate race, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

Democrat Mary Peltola smiles ahead of a debate with Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska's Senate race on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan is seen ahead of a debate with Democrat Mary Peltola in Alaska's Senate race on Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

In this photo shot with a smart phone, supporters of Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan and Democrat Mary Peltola gathered outside the venue where the candidates were set to debate, Thursday, Oct. 15, 2026, in Anchorage, Alaska. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

In this photo taken with a smartphone, Mary Peltola, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Alaska, speaks to a reporter at a picketing event for Horizon Air flight attendants Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2026, in Anchorage, Ala. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

President Donald Trump listens as Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, speaks at a campaign rally at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in Wasilla, Alaska. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)