Can French teenagers still bend a government?

Pollar Sounds · Oct 14, 2026 · 25m · transcript

For almost three weeks, French high school students have been blockading their own schools. They want more teachers, smaller classes and buildings that don't fall apart. French students have made governments back down before, in 1986 and in 2006, when there was one law to drop. In 2023 they lost. This time there is no law, only a budget, and a government without a majority that says there is no money.

We go from one Paris high school wrapped in safety netting to the National Assembly, where Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and the left trade blame for the violence. What the government is…