France Student Protests Update: Act V Turnout

Key numbers, Act V (Oct. 13, 2026)

Turnout: 161,500 nationwide, including 41,500 in Paris (Interior Ministry) vs. 480,000 (youth organisations’ intersyndicale)
Change: more than double the ministry’s 71,500 count for Oct. 8; below its Oct. 6 count
Schools: 214 closed on Oct. 13; “a little under 200” expected closed Oct. 14 (Education Ministry)
Custody since mid-September: more than 6,800, about 86% minors (Justice Ministry, last updated Oct. 9)
Injured since the start: 147 school staff (Education Ministry); more than 200 pupils and 800+ police and gendarmes (franceinfo)
Act V national arrest total: not published in the sources reviewed as of Oct. 14, 9:30 a.m. ET

The fifth national day of France’s student protests drew 161,500 marchers on Tuesday, Oct. 13, according to the French Interior Ministry, while the youth organisations behind the movement put turnout at 480,000. The ministry’s count was more than double its figure for the previous national day on Oct. 8, France 24 reported, and organisers said the movement was still growing as the All Saints’ school holiday approaches.

This update follows our report from Tuesday morning on the start of Act V. All protest days, turnout figures, photos and videos are on our France protests tracker.

Final Act V turnout: two counts

The Interior Ministry said 161,500 people marched across France, including 41,500 in Paris, where two processions set off, one from the Hôtel de Ville and one from Place d’Italie toward the Invalides. The intersyndicale of student and high school organisations said about 480,000 took part, according to franceinfo and TF1 Info. TF1 noted that organisers described the figure as 30,000 higher than their count for Oct. 6, while the ministry’s number was lower than its Oct. 6 tally.

France 24, citing AFP, reported that thousands also marched in Nantes, Lyon, Lens, Strasbourg, Toulouse, Bordeaux and Marseille. In Lyon, the Rhône prefecture said a procession of about 11,000 people followed the planned route, according to France 3. The Guardian reported that most marches, including in Lyon, Lille and Marseille, were peaceful.

Incidents and arrests

Violence broke out on the sidelines of one of the two Paris marches. AFP journalists saw cars set on fire, and police fired tear gas as masked youths tried to build barricades and threw objects, France 24 reported. The Guardian said riot police fired tear gas at the end of marches in Nantes and near Montparnasse in Paris.

In Lyon, the prefecture said a group of “several hundred hostile individuals” mixed into the march damaged street furniture and shops, threw projectiles at police and attacked a petrol station, and the prefect ordered the march dispersed. It reported nine arrests and five injuries, four of them police officers or gendarmes, France 3 reported. In Essonne, south of Paris, the prefecture banned gatherings near 13 high schools on Tuesday and said 141 people had been arrested in the department since the movement began, according to actu.fr.

A national arrest count for Act V had not appeared in the outlets reviewed by Wednesday morning. The latest national judicial figures, released by the Justice Ministry last week, showed more than 6,800 people taken into custody since the protests began, about 86% of them minors. franceinfo, citing a source close to the case, reported that the IGPN police watchdog had opened 36 investigations; France 24 put the number of internal investigations into alleged violence against demonstrators at 34.

Government and ministry response

Education Minister Édouard Geffray told BFMTV-RMC on Wednesday that “a little under 200” high schools were expected to be closed, about 4% of the total. “96% of high schools are open and in three quarters of departments, no disruption has been recorded,” he said. The Higher Education Ministry told France Inter that 32% of higher education institutions were disrupted on Wednesday morning, compared with 35% on Tuesday, and Lyon 2 University said it would stay closed all week “for safety,” franceinfo reported.

Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, Geffray called the 147 school staff injured since the start of the movement a figure “unprecedented in the history of national education,” according to 20 Minutes. The government’s announced measures so far include 3,000 replacement teachers for more than 500 struggling schools, an online consultation open until Oct. 23 and, according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, first decisions at the end of October.

What comes next

Student organisations are due to meet Geffray and Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 15. Organisers have not called an “Act VI” for Thursday, but the Union syndicale lycéenne said it would keep up school blockades, and several organisations have called on supporters to join a “yellow vest” cost-of-living demonstration on Saturday, Oct. 17, the first day of the school holiday, BFMTV and franceinfo reported. The Senate is scheduled to begin debating a government bill on liability for property damage on Oct. 27.

Timeline

Sept. 18: First blockade at Lycée Saint-Exupéry, Créteil.
Sept. 28: Blockades spread nationwide.
Oct. 1: Act II, with more than 900 actions reported.
Oct. 6: Act III: 256,000 (Interior Ministry) vs. 450,000 (organisers).
Oct. 8: Act IV: 71,500 (Interior Ministry) vs. 130,000+ (CGT).
Oct. 13: Act V: 161,500 (Interior Ministry) vs. 480,000 (organisers).
Oct. 15: Student organisations meet Geffray and Baptiste.
Oct. 17: Cost-of-living demonstration; school holiday begins.
Oct. 23: Government consultation closes.

Reactions

“Today is a turning point,” Pierre Sourzat, president of the organisation Les Lycéens!, told franceinfo on Wednesday. “We’ll see if they will announce concrete things to us, once and for all, because so far we’ve only had crumbs.”

“We will always be there, we will be present at the blockades,” Union syndicale lycéenne president Ryad Rani said Tuesday evening, adding: “The movement is intensifying, there is a real convergence,” according to BFMTV. Sabrine Kharbach of the Union étudiante said it was “very good that it’s on a Saturday” so that more people could join.

On Tuesday in Saint-Denis, climate activist Greta Thunberg told students that “the whole world is watching with awe,” the Associated Press reported. For more international coverage, see our World News section.

Featured image: Demonstrators on the July Column at Place de la Bastille, Paris, Oct. 8, 2026. Photo: NClV, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Act V Brings 161,500 to French Streets by Official Count, 480,000 by Organisers