French students keep schools blocked as debt weighs on next year's election

High school students in Paris have blocked school entrances for weeks over holes in classroom walls, growing class sizes and a shortage of teachers.

Hundreds were injured in protests earlier this month amid accusations of police brutality, which the interior ministry denies. The interior minister has since suspended the use of stun grenades at high school demonstrations.

Public spending

57 % of GDP

French public spending is about 57 per cent of GDP, one of the highest among wealthy nations, and the country carries one of Europe's heaviest tax burdens.

“We need constitutional change. A new system. A new Republic.”

— Anne-Laure Delatte, economist, Paris Dauphine University

What's next

France elects a president next spring. Marine Le Pen, the favourite, proposes cutting the country's 11-billion-euro contribution to the European Union budget.