France to release diesel reserves as student protests resume

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 ImagesFrance 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 ...