Social protests France: Where the blockades really began

With posters in their hands, the students jump up and down, dance and cheer and shout together: “Il est temps de nous écouter” – “It’s time to listen to us.” This is shown by images from the end of September on Mayotte, one of France's overseas regions off the coast of Madagascar. The poor learning situation of the students has hardly been heard for far too long.

This protest should also receive little media attention compared to others. The demonstrations that would soon spread across France began here - well before the protests in Créteil, a suburb of Paris that is repeatedly described in the media as the starting point of the protests.

It started with the Lycée du Nord, the school is in the municipality of Acua on Mayotte. Since August 31st, the mothers of the students have been standing in the parking lot in front of the gates in the morning to demand better education for their children. Two days before their first blockade, the teachers themselves went on strike. They all agree: the conditions at Mayotte's school are “unworthy”.

The Lycée du Nord actually has space for 900 students, but more than 2,000 children now attend the school. Given the conditions, space problems are inevitable, and Cyclone Chido, which struck in December 2024, further aggravated the situation.

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The classrooms are too small and the school has too few toilets. There is one toilet for every around sixty students. “Our children sit tightly together, the classrooms are overheated because there are too many of them, and the infrastructure is not designed for this,” criticizes Moidjoumoi Madi, mother of a student, to the French daily newspaper Libération. But that's not all, they are protesting against the shortage of teachers and demanding a canteen.

Even after protests across France since mid-September have drawn attention to the miserable condition of schools across the country, little attention has been paid to the conditions that exist away from the mainland. Fatima Mouhoussini explains to Libération: "In France they are asking for additional resources. Here we are simply asking for resources because we simply have nothing." Mouhoussini is vice-president of the FCPE in Mayotte, a federation of parents' organizations.

The region is neglected and many complain about the feeling of unequal treatment compared to mainland France, which further fuels anger on the island.

In response to the nationwide school protests, French Education Minister Édouard Geffray announced the deployment of 3,000 substitute teachers at the beginning of October. They should be used where the shortage of teachers is particularly acute. It is still unclear whether the French overseas territories will also benefit from the concessions.

The protest of the mothers, teachers and students from Mayotte has now brought thousands of young people onto the streets across Europe - even if many of the demonstrators don't even know them or their protest.

How does change begin? In the column “The Initiation” we tell you every week about a historical moment that triggered something.