Will it be autumn recess to the rescue for a beleaguered French government? Ministers no doubt counting the days until Friday evening when the holidays start in hopes that an unexpected student movement disappears as quickly as it materialized. A movement sparked three weeks ago by deteriorating conditions in a Paris area high school may take a leave of absence… but what about demands for a generation that feels left behind by cost cutting? Only one party’s sided vocally with the students since the very start, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left France Unbowed.
We’ll ask whether that will consolidate his second place in the polls ahead of next Spring’s presidential election. That would qualify Mélenchon for the May Second runoff against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen. Have the mainstream center-left and center-right candidates gifted the youth vote to the 75-year old firebrand? Do they understand what’s fueling the aspirations and anxieties of a generation that’s been through COVID, climate change and the sudden acceleration of AI? What does the next generation want?
