France to release diesel reserves as student protests reignite
Students are gathering and blocking access near the School of Political Science, while other students are joining the high school student protest movement and the blockades at high schools in Paris, Ile-de-France, France, on October 7, 2026.
Gauthier Bedrignans | Afp | Getty Images
France will release 10 million barrels from its strategic diesel reserves to ease cost of living pressures, Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu said on Wednesday, as he seeks to quell public unrest amid large-scale protests over underfunding in education.
Lecornu said in a televised address that the protesters’ anger “did not come out of nowhere,” and acknowledged the public felt “fatigue” about a string of crises.
The release from France’s diesel stockpile at cost price, bought before the U.S.-Iran war caused a global energy price surge, is set to bring down prices at the pump by 12 to 18 euro cents per litre of diesel, Lecornu said.
The Group of Seven nations, of which France is a member, last week agreed to release 100 million barrels of reserves, after the Trump administration pushed Europe to deploy its stocks. Middle East disruption and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries are exacerbating a global squeeze on refined products, prices of which are set to remain elevated into next year.
Police intervene at the scene using tear gas as students take to the streets to protest education conditions in Nancy, France, on October 7, 2026.
Anadolu | Anadolu | Getty Images
Hundreds of French schools will be closed on Thursday amid a nationwide protest by high school and college students dubbed “semaine noire,” or “black week,” which has seen blockades erected in many cities. The government suspended the use of stun grenades after a 15-year-old boy’s hand was blown off earlier in the week, fueling accusations of police brutality.
Protesters say years of underinvestment have left French schools overcrowded, run-down, under-resourced and under-staffed.
Wider discontent swirls in France over living standards and wages, strained public services, political dysfunction, immigration and security, boosting the popularity of the far-right National Rally and left-wing New Popular Front alliance at the expense of the incumbent center-right government.
But their complaints come as Lecornu’s government seeks to rein in public spending to appease skittish bond markets, which have punished France more harshly than many of its peers this year, amid a global bond market rout.
France’s benchmark borrowing cost has climbed by around 1.26 percentage points this year to its highest level since 2002, while its risk premium over Germany’s has nearly doubled.
The yield on French 10-year government bonds, known as OATs, was last seen 3 basis points higher at around 4.9% on Thursday.
Lecornu is seeking to pass a budget that involves slashing around 43 billion euros ($48.1 billion) in public spending through a divided parliament…
Read More: France to release diesel reserves as student protests reignite