French high school students have blockaded dozens of schools and public sector workers have gone on strike, protesting planned budget cuts ahead of next year's presidential election.
Tuesday's action comes seven months before the vote and just two days before the government is due to unveil its draft 2027 budget. Opinion polls consistently reflect deep dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron and his centre-right government.
Student protests have gathered pace in recent days over overcrowded classrooms and teacher shortages. The Ministry of National Education said more than 330 high schools — just under one in ten — were affected.
There were 40 arrests on Tuesday and 10 people — students and staff — were wounded. In one lycee in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in an attempt to protect them from police.
Masked pupils gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire. Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and various objects hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.
In the western city of Nantes, teenagers piled up dozens of bins to block the entrance to the Lycee Gabriel Guist'hau. In Paris, an uneasy standoff developed between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school. Similar clashes were also reported in Marseille, Bordeaux and Lyon.
Professional firefighters, who say this summer's wildfires exposed dangerous resource gaps, joined marches in several cities.
About 11 percent of teachers and school staff joined the strike, according to the Education Ministry, in a system where French teachers are paid less on average than many of their European peers. Participation among other civil servants was below one in ten, with even fewer hospital staff stopping work, as the loss of a day's pay weighed on turnout.
Civil aviation authorities warned of flight disruption at some airports.
CGT union leader Sophie Binet gave the government 48 hours to withdraw the planned cuts. She denounced a fourth consecutive annual freeze in state employees' base pay, part of a 2-billion-euro ($2.2bn) savings push and a wider 54-billion-euro ($61bn) austerity drive.
