On Tuesday morning off the coast of Brittany, a ballistic missile broke through the surface of the Atlantic and climbed into the sky as President Emmanuel Macron watched from the French frigate Auvergne. The M51.3 carried no nuclear warhead, but there was little ambiguity about what the launch represented. France was testing the newest version of the weapon at the heart of its sea-based nuclear deterrent, and Macron used the moment to underline a doctrine increasingly prominent in French security policy: “To be free, one must be feared. And to be feared, one must be powerful.”
Several hundred kilometres away, another demonstration of state power was unfolding around school gates.
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| France displays nuclear strength as student protests intensify at home. Image credit: Eastora illustration |
Across France, riot police faced high-school students, teachers and parents in a movement that began with complaints about missing teachers and deteriorating school conditions and has expanded into one of the country’s largest youth mobilizations in decades. Police used tear gas during confrontations in several cities on Tuesday. More than 250,000 people joined demonstrations nationwide, according to police figures reported by AP, while hundreds of high schools were closed, blockaded or disrupted.
The two events were unrelated in an operational sense. The missile launch had been planned as an acceptance test after the nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarine Le Vigilant completed a major maintenance period. The school protests began weeks earlier and grew from local grievances into a national political problem. Yet their convergence on the same day offered an unusually sharp picture of the competing pressures confronting France near the end of Macron’s presidency.
A missile designed for the next strategic era
The October 6 launch was the first firing of an M51.3 from an operational French ballistic-missile submarine. The missile entered service in October 2025 and incorporates improvements in range, accuracy and the ability to penetrate missile defences. France’s defence ministry says the operational version can carry the newer TNO-2 nuclear warhead, although Tuesday’s missile was unarmed and fell into the North Atlantic hundreds of kilometres from land.
France maintains four nuclear-powered ballistic-missile submarines and an arsenal estimated at about 290 nuclear warheads. Reuters reports that the M51.3 is believed to have a range exceeding 9,000 kilometres. Paris spends roughly €5.6 billion a year on its nuclear deterrent, part of a much broader military expansion that Macron has pursued since entering office.
That expansion has accelerated as relations between Russia and Europe have deteriorated. Moscow has again issued nuclear warnings connected to NATO and Kaliningrad, while Macron has argued that Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defence and has opened discussions with European partners over a wider role for France’s nuclear deterrent. French officials present that posture as insurance against a more dangerous security environment, particularly as the war in Ukraine and doubts over long-term U.S. commitments have reshaped European defence planning.
The money reflects the shift. France’s core defence budget stood at €32.2 billion in 2017. Under the military programme updated this year, it is scheduled to reach €63.3 billion in 2027. An additional €36 billion was added to military programming for 2026-2030, with the government explicitly describing the policy as an acceleration of French rearmament.
Outside the schools, a different argument about the state
The students blocking school entrances are asking questions of a very different scale.
The movement began on September 21 at a high school in Créteil, outside Paris, amid anger over unfilled teaching positions. Within roughly ten days, protests had spread nationwide. By October 1, more than 1,000 schools — close to a quarter of the country’s high schools — had reportedly been affected by blockades or demonstrations. Students have described overcrowded classes, absent teachers who are not replaced, deteriorating buildings, overloaded schedules and anxiety surrounding the Parcoursup university admissions system.
Some complaints are strikingly basic. Students and teachers interviewed by Le Monde have described rats and cockroaches in school buildings, inadequate toilets and classrooms that become unbearably hot in summer or cold in winter. Other students describe days stretching from early morning into the evening and a system in which competition for university places begins long before graduation.
The unrest has also become considerably more violent. Reuters reported more than 6,100 arrests, most involving minors, alongside injuries to at least 215 teenagers, 85 school employees and more than 700 police officers. A 15-year-old boy lost a hand after picking up a police grenade, an incident that intensified criticism of policing tactics. Authorities, for their part, say some protests have been infiltrated by groups responsible for arson, attacks and destruction around schools.
The result is no longer simply an education dispute. It has become a test of how much social frustration France’s government can absorb while it is simultaneously attempting to cut its deficit, reassure bond markets and prepare the country for a more confrontational international security environment.
The numbers complicate an easy comparison
France is not simply choosing missiles instead of schools.
The government’s proposed 2027 education allocation is about €65.5 billion, slightly above the roughly €63.3 billion programmed for the core defence mission. Education remains one of the largest items in the French state budget.
But the direction of travel is different. Defence spending has nearly doubled in nominal terms since 2017 and is due to rise again sharply next year. Education spending is growing much more slowly, while schools are being asked to operate within a broader programme of fiscal restraint. Reuters reported that the planned education increase for 2027 is around 1.7%, below recent inflation, as the government tries to find tens of billions of euros in savings across the state.
France has little room for easy choices. Public debt is approaching 120% of GDP, borrowing costs have climbed and the government is trying to reduce a deficit of around 5.4% of GDP. Its 2027 budget involves roughly €43 billion in savings and revenue measures. Debt servicing itself is expected to become one of the largest items in the state budget.
That fiscal squeeze helps explain why demands that sound straightforward at a school gate — replace absent teachers, renovate buildings, reduce overcrowding — become more difficult once they reach Paris.
It also gives Tuesday’s images their political force.
Off Brittany, Macron watched one of the most sophisticated weapons France has ever built rise from the Atlantic, part of a long-term strategy meant to guarantee the country’s security in a more dangerous Europe. In Paris, Lyon and other cities, teenagers stood opposite police demanding that the state pay more attention to the institutions they encounter every morning.
A government can argue, with reason, that nuclear deterrence and functioning public schools are not competing luxuries but separate responsibilities of the same state. France’s security planners are preparing for threats that may define Europe for decades; its students are pointing to problems already visible inside classrooms today.
The harder question is not whether France can justify either priority. It is whether, under growing financial pressure, it can convincingly sustain both.
And on October 6, the distance between those two challenges could be seen in two images: a missile climbing above the Atlantic, and students gathering behind barricades outside their schools.