After Sébastien Lecornu's Wednesday address was judged to have failed to calm anger, Thursday's acte IV opened with 375 schools fully or partly closed, down from Tuesday, with blockades in Paris and Lyon and marches starting in Marseille, Lyon and Nantes. Thousands later converged in Paris where police encircled the rally and dispersed it after projectiles and scuffles, with tensions also in Nantes, Strasbourg and Bordeaux. The Interior counted 71,500 protesters and 504 arrests. In the evening education minister Edouard Geffray announced on TF1 the dispatch of 3,000 substitute teachers within days, dismissed by lycéen organizations as lacking concrete measures as the intersyndicale called a new strike day for 13 October.
Away from schools, the CGT called a TotalEnergies strike over wages affecting refineries and stations as Lecornu prepared to receive distributors Monday over strategic diesel stocks.