00:10France is in turmoil. What started on September 21 at one school north of Paris has now turned
00:17into a national crisis. Hundreds of schools have now been affected. Thousands of people
00:23have been taken into police custody, many of them teenagers.
00:30There have been injuries on both sides, students, teachers and police officers. So what exactly
00:36is happening in France? And perhaps the bigger question, why do protests have such a powerful
00:42place in French politics and society? Let's understand it simply. The protest began at
00:48Saint-Exupéry High School in a Paris suburb. Students joined their teachers to protest something
00:54that may sound familiar in many countries. Too few teachers, overcrowded classrooms and
01:01lack of resources. The school received additional staff and the original protest ended. But something
01:07had already happened. The protest had spread. Students in Paris and the surrounding region
01:12began blocking school entrances. Then similar protests appeared in cities across France from
01:18Lille in the north to Marseille in the south. And very quickly, the issue moved beyond one
01:24school. Students were saying that France's education system is simply not giving them the
01:29resources they need. And there is some context behind that anger. France has more high school
01:36students today than it did in 2008. Around 250,000 more, according to the brief. But secondary schools
01:44now have fewer teachers than they did then. Around 70 percent of classrooms in the public sector have
01:51more than 30 students. So for many students, this isn't just about one government decision. They see it as
01:58a longer-term problem. But then the protests became more complicated. Some demonstrations
02:04turned violent too. Trashcams were set on fire. Barricades appeared. There were clashes with police.
02:10More than 100 schools have reportedly suffered damage too. Police have also faced criticism over
02:16their response and role. One officer was filmed putting a girl in a headlock in Alencon, a technique
02:23that is now prohibited by law in France. The government says the situation has increasingly moved from
02:30student protest into wider urban violence. And on one day alone, around 2,000 people were taken into
02:37custody, as per the police reports in France. But here's where French history becomes important. Because in
02:46France, protests are not unusual. In fact, they are deeply connected to the country's political culture. The most
02:53famous example in May of 1968, what started with student protests, eventually developed into the largest
02:59general strike in French history. Millions of workers joined. The country was effectively paralyzed and the government was
03:07forced to respond with major political and economic concessions. One of the famous slogans of 1968 was,
03:14be realistic, ask for the impossible. That tells you something about French protest culture. The idea is not simply to
03:22demonstrate. It is to put enough pressure on the political system that the government has to negotiate. And this pattern
03:29has
03:29appeared repeatedly in modern French history too. Student protests, labour strikes and mass demonstrations have forced
03:36governments to reconsider policies, sometimes over-education, sometimes pensions, wages, labour laws or fuel prices.
03:45But there is another side of this story. French governments have also repeatedly tried to balance their right to protest
03:51with the need to maintain public order. And that tension is again visible today. The government is already
03:59under financial pressure. France is trying to bring down its budget deficit while borrowing costs have also become a concern.
04:06That makes the student's demand politically difficult. Because meeting those demands requires money. And the government says it has
04:13less room to spend. At the same time, the political stakes are also getting bigger. The far left has openly
04:21supported the student's right to protest. The government has focused on public order and the cost of the unrest. And
04:27the far right is also watching closely. So what began as a protest about classrooms and teachers has now become
04:34part of a much bigger political
04:36battle. And that brings us to the key question. Will these protests actually achieve something? History suggests that French governments
04:45cannot easily ignore large, sustained protest movements. But protest does not automatically guarantee victory. The outcome depends on how large
04:55the movement becomes, whether workers join it or not, whether public support grows, or whether the government is willing or
05:02able to negotiate. For the students protesting today,
05:06their message is actually quite simple. They say they are not asking for the impossible. They are asking for something
05:14much more basic. A school system where there are enough teachers, enough resources, and enough space for students to learn.
05:22And in France, when young people take to the barricades, history tells us that governments tend to pay attention.
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