Election-related patches worse than the hole in the coverage of the student protests in France

Paris. The protest by French sixth-formers, now in its third week, is calling for smaller class sizes, more modern schools and increased funding in general to improve conditions for pupils. “Until 10 billion euros is put on the table, we will continue to take to the streets,” threatened Sabrine Kharbach, spokesperson for the student union Union étudiante, yesterday whilst at the Place de la Bastille for the so-called Act IV of the protests. In recent days, the government has stepped up its conciliatory gestures in an attempt to defuse a protest that has become more radicalised under the influence of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left movement.

On Wednesday evening, in a pre-recorded address from Matignon, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu stated that “the anger of young people does not come out of nowhere” and that “no one can remain indifferent to the anxieties they are expressing”, announcing that the government’s “initial decisions” in response to the students’ demands would be presented at the end of October. On Wednesday, the Prime Minister also pointed out that the draft budget for 2027, presented last week, already provides for an additional €1.2 billion for education compared with last year. For families, however, the existing support measures remain in place: the so-called ‘allocation de rentrée scolaire’, a financial allowance paid to lower-income households to cover the costs of the new school year, and a small reduction in income tax for each child attending secondary school. The government’s approach is therefore to fund state schools directly – a model in which the state pays for teachers, facilities and services rather than transferring further funds to families.

The leader of the Rassemblement National (RN), Marine Le Pen, however, takes a different approach. Her alternative budget, presented in recent days, promises savings of 140 billion euros and at least 30 billion in net tax cuts by 2032. The idea is to reduce the overall burden of the state and leave more money in households’ pockets. For education, this means, above all, focusing on households’ disposable income, rather than building a more costly system of public spending. Her programme also includes measures such as increasing tax relief for children and exempting those under 30 from income tax. The approach is therefore the opposite of the government’s: lower taxes, more money in parents’ pockets, and a state that simultaneously seeks to spend less. The problem is that, whilst students are calling for more teachers and better schools, those services still require public spending.

Le Pen’s plan therefore envisages that resources will be recouped by cutting other areas: healthcare, administration, France’s contribution to the EU, fraud and immigration-related expenditure. However, the counter-budget has been deemed implausible by most economists. “It’s pure mathematical magic!” stated Erwann Tison, director of research at the think tank L’Institut de l’Entreprise, on X. Mélenchon, the guru of France insoumise (LFI), who is capitalising on student mobilisation ahead of the 2027 presidential elections, proposes the exact opposite. His idea is that families should pay almost nothing for school essentials. The LFI programme includes what is known as ‘genuine free’ public education: school meals, transport, school trips, books and supplies should be covered by the public system. But where would the funding for this ‘genuine free’ education come from? From the wealthier sections of society.

Mélenchon aims to revolutionise the tax system should he win the presidential election in 2027, by reintroducing the wealth tax (abolished by Macron in 2018) and imposing higher taxes on the wealthiest. Mélenchon supplements this strategy with a proposal to freeze the portion of French debt held by the ECB – approximately 600–635 billion euros out of a total debt exceeding 3,500 billion – which would free up financial resources for public programmes. This proposal has been described as “illegal” by the Governor of the Bank of France, Emmanuel Moulin, as it violates the European treaties on the independence of central banks.