France's PM Lecornu prepares national address over student protests

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu will address the nation on Wednesday evening as part of his government's drive to end the wave of student blockades that have closed high schools throughout the country. Issued on: 07/10/2026 - 12:08Modified: 07/10/2026 - 12:14 3 min Reading time Lecornu is also expected to address soaring fuel prices, problems on French farms following last summer's drought and the country’s financial situation with the cost of debt on the rise. His move follows a day of protests in which an estimated 260,000 people took to the streets in France to highlight the poor state of school buildings, overcrowded classrooms and the lack of teachers. "The Prime Minister will address the situation in secondary schools, fuel prices, the agricultural crisis and the country’s financial situation,” his office said on Wednesday. Lecornu has called on students to return to the classrooms so that the issues can be discussed during a day he descibed as internal democracy. French PM slams violence at student protests, promises 'timeout' for democracy Call for further day of protests But his plea has been rejected by high school student union USL which plans further nationwide protests on Thursday. On Wednesday, the main union representing headteachers, the SNPDEN-UNSA, refused to implement Lecornu's plan. Nicolas Bonnet, the union’s national secretary and headteacher of the Henri-Brulle vocational school in Libourne, south-western France, told French broadcaster Franceinfo that headteachers did not intend to organise them. Protesters hold placards, one reading "Public private solidarity", during a demonstration in front of the private Charles Peguy high school in solidarity with the demands of public high-school students, as part of a nationwide protest movement over learning conditions, in Paris on 6 October 2026. AFP - SIMON WOHLFAHRT “To emerge from this crisis I believe that we will need more than just consultation sessions,” Bonnet said. He said the students were asking for a rethink of issues such as the university admissions sustem that had been raised by headteachers. “We need resources, we need teachers,” Bonnet added. “There are a number of contract teachers who were not re-employed at the start of the academic year. They can called upon to fill the vacant posts. "President Macron must take charge of the situation," he added. "He must meet young people, listen to them and provide a number of answers." Macron met Lecornu, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez and Education Minister Édouard Geffray on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, Nuñez announced that police would no longer use stun grenades during clashes with student protesters. Hundreds of French schools closed as students maintain protest pressure Police tactics under scrutiny The use of the weapon has come under scrutiny after an incident on Monday in Lens, northern France, in which the left hand of a 15-year-old was blown off by a stun grenade. “I am suspending their use in relation to the secondary school students’ protests until the facts of this case have been established,” Nuñez told French broadcaster RTL. An investigation by the police force's General Inspectorate IGPN will need to establish whether the student picked up the grenade or whether it landed on him. The IGPN, which is looking into 18 other cases connected with police behaviour during the protests, will decide whether the shot was fired in line with regulations. According to the mayor of Wingles, the town near Lens where the teenager lives, his hand was amputated and he has undergone a transplant. Since the start of the protests, 6,547 arrests have been made, including 488 on Tuesday. More than 700 police officers and gendarmes have been injured. Lecornu on Tuesday accused the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) of fanning the flames of the protests and throwing the country into chaos just a few months before the presidential election. Back to school: new rules for pupils and an uncertain future for education minister "You're ambiguous about your attitude to violence," Lecornu told LFI MP Mathilde Panot. "Because violence is part of your political policy. I will tell you one thing, lying about the intentions of the government will not save you at the elections. Sewing discord since the start of the student movement is a scandal." His government is expected to come under fire during Wednesday's opening debates on the draft budget for 2027 in the finance committee of the National Assembly. Trade unions in the agricultural sector say the draft budget fails to include the promised recovery plan to help farmers who suffered losses during the repeated heatwaves and drought last summer. (With newswires)