French President Emmanuel Macron met representatives of high school student organisations at the Élysée Palace on Friday 23 October, according to France 24. The broadcaster described it as his first meeting with student representatives since the school protests began more than a month earlier.
What the Students Said
France 24 reported that the student groups said Mr Macron promised an overhaul of Parcoursup, the national university admissions platform introduced in 2018 and criticised by its opponents as opaque and discriminatory. The report does not give the president’s own account of what was agreed. After the meeting, the student representatives called for “continued mobilisation”, according to the broadcaster, which describes the wider protests as being about France’s rising cost of living.
Security and Restrictions
Ahead of fresh demonstrations on Saturday 24 October, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said about 70,000 security personnel would be deployed across the country, France 24 reported. The deployment includes elite police units, about 20 armoured vehicles and 15 water-cannon vehicles.
The report said Mr Macron stated that demonstrations not organised by workers’ unions would be banned, so that only union marches were authorised on Saturday. Authorities in Lyon and Marseille banned all protests, and Paris extended a partial curfew in parts of the city until Monday. The Louvre, Orsay and Picasso museums were to close on Saturday over concerns about violence, and a Ligue 1 football match between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon was moved from Sunday to Monday at the request of police, the broadcaster added.
France 24 also noted that private-sector unions had called for a strike on 5 November, and, citing a French presidential source, that a planned visit to Senegal and Nigeria had been postponed.
Why It Matters
The meeting shows the government trying two tracks at once: engagement with young people on a specific grievance, and a firm public-order response after the unrest of recent weeks. Student leaders’ decision to keep calling for mobilisation suggests that a promise to review Parcoursup, as they describe it, has not yet satisfied them, and the stated cost-of-living concerns are broader than any single policy. The restrictions on non-union protests will test the balance between maintaining order and protecting the right to demonstrate, a question likely to be debated in the days ahead. France 24 also reported that a planned trip to Senegal and Nigeria has been postponed, without giving a reason.
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