Why have France’s school protests become a wider political crisis?

About 550,000 people demonstrated across France on Saturday, October 17, over school conditions, rising living costs and cuts to public services. The movement began last month in high schools in working-class northern Paris suburbs, where students protested teacher shortages and poor facilities, then spread to Bordeaux, Rennes, Nantes, Lyon, Lille and Marseille. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu reported 1,200 arrests and 150 police officers injured after a minority of protesters clashed with police and attacked buildings and shops. Students, trade unions and supporters of the Yellow Vest movement joined the protests amid anger over deteriorating public services and distrust in France’s political institutions.