Mélenchon Backs French School Protests, Proposes Voting Age of 16

French far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon celebrated the country's high school protest movement at a campaign rally Sunday in the southern city of Clermont-Ferrand, inviting student demonstrators on stage and calling for the voting age to be lowered to 16. He said the movement shows what he described as a high level of political and union maturity, and his party, France Unbowed, says it is not organizing the protests and wants them to remain peaceful.

The nationwide student movement has been driven by deteriorating school buildings, teacher shortages and inequalities affecting schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. It has at times turned violent: police have made more than 6,600 arrests, and hundreds of people have been injured, including students, teachers and officers. Critics accuse Mélenchon and his party of inflaming the protests for electoral gain.

The unrest has already forced the government to order urgent hiring of substitute teachers and rearrange school schedules. Students at the barricades say those steps are not enough. More protests are planned for Tuesday and next Saturday, and the movement has shown young people the power they can wield — something Mélenchon hopes will translate into higher youth turnout at the ballot box.

Speaking to thousands of supporters as he seeks to accelerate his campaign, the 75-year-old Mélenchon also proposed scrapping selective university admissions, saying knowledge should not be treated as merchandise, and called for lowering the retirement age to 60 from 62. He repeated his push to cancel France's debt, described U.S. President Donald Trump as an adversary over his tariffs, and said France should pursue a more independent foreign policy, arguing NATO membership runs against the country's interests.

At this stage, polls suggest Mélenchon and center-right candidate Edouard Philippe trail far-right candidate Marine Le Pen but lead a range of other hopefuls, and it remains unclear whether they will hold their current levels of support. President Emmanuel Macron is finishing his second term and cannot run again, making the two-round election in April and May a turning point for France and Europe — the EU's only nuclear power, its second-biggest economy and a linchpin of the euro currency zone.

Also Sunday, Socialist and allied voters selected European Parliament lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann as their presidential candidate in a primary marred by a cyberattack and divisions within the mainstream left. Over the weekend, Philippe and centrist candidate Gabriel Attal, both former prime ministers appointed by the now-unpopular Macron, held their own rallies. High school librarian Dounia Georgeon told The Associated Press at a protest this week at her school in eastern Paris that the movement is marking students' entry into politics, and that the muscular police response is likely to leave a lasting mark on them.