Students plan blockades from Monday

The Lyceens group said high school blockades would restart Monday when students return from a two-week holiday, with further action planned for Tuesday and Thursday.

Disruption is the point of striking

Pierre Sourzat, head of Lyceens, told RMC radio on Sunday that blockades aim to cause disruption. He rejected President Macron's claim that young people have been heard.

“We're calling for blockades... starting on Monday ... that's the principle when you go on strike, it's to cause disruption.”

Government proposals dismissed as insufficient

Sourzat said the government's plan to reduce class sizes would apply only to tenth-grade classes when students demanded all year groups. He called the proposals smoke and mirrors.

“There's a bit of polish on the surface, but once you scratch beneath it, there's nothing there.”

Unions also reject government measures

Trade unions including the hardline CGT union say government proposals do not go far enough. They are calling for an increase in the minimum wage and higher pay for civil servants.

Saturday protests drew hundreds of thousands

Around three hundred twenty thousand people protested across France on Saturday for a third consecutive weekend, including seventy thousand in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry.

Police arrest hundreds amid security operation

Interior Minister Laurent Nunez deployed seventy thousand police and gendarmes nationwide on Saturday. Police arrested seven hundred seventy-nine people, with prosecutors launching an attempted murder probe after a petrol bomb was thrown at security forces.