Today in Focus France France’s teens versus the riot police – podcast Angelique Chrisafis on the pupils and students who are taking to the streets and closing down schools in France
More ways to listen Apple podcasts Spotify RSS Feed Download Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Angelique Chrisafis , produced by Tom Glasser , Saskia Collette and Brian McNamara ; executive producer Homa Khaleeli Thu 8 Oct 2026 04.00 CEST Share Thousands arrested, hundreds injured. It’s been a shocking week for France . Schools have been closed and ransacked. Some have simply been burned down.
The pupils are fed up with the status quo. And they’re furious about a school system that they say is failing them.
It began with outrage over shoddy school conditions in the banlieue, the deprived suburbs on the outskirts of Paris. But the movement has grown into something much bigger, fuelled by a feeling that no one cares about them – and that their lives are only going to get worse, explains the Guardian’s Paris correspondent, Angelique Chrisafis. She tells Nosheen Iqbal that a boy has already lost an eye, and another has lost a hand. So how will the protests be resolved?