High school students and their supporters were set to pour into streets across France again on Thursday, for the second time in a week, in a test of whether a growing movement of student protesters can swell into a nationwide wave of grievance.
The big question confronting French officials is whether other groups will now join the protests, which could alter their character and make them even more disruptive. So far, they have largely been contained to high school campuses and focused on student grievances — except for marches across France on Tuesday, when union activists rallied with the students, drawing an estimated 250,000 people, according to the Interior Ministry.
With the possibility of public-sector workers and other groups joining in more regularly, the specter of something akin to the yellow-vest movement hangs over France. Those protests, which drew tens of thousands of people clad in high-visibility utility vests, convulsed the country between 2018 and 2020.
If anything, the tensions are deeper now. France faces a presidential election in April in which a far-right candidate, Marine Le Pen, has a plausible path to victory. The country is in the throes of a financial crisis and fears about public debt caused yields on French bonds to spike to nearly 5 percent on Wednesday.
The students are protesting against overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of teachers and decrepit facilities. But with parlous public finances, the French government can offer students little remedy beyond continuing to suspend most classes so they can air their complaints.
“Young people’s anger doesn’t come out of nowhere,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in a speech to the nation on Wednesday. But he pleaded with the students to “choose their path and look to the future with confidence.”
“Let’s not doubt ourselves,” Mr. Lecornu said, in what amounted to a pep talk for a dispirited country. Listing France’s assets — from students and farmers to soldiers and diplomats — he called on the French “to draw on these resources to overcome our challenges.”
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