Are student protests being manipulated ahead of France's presidential election?

But "Mélenchon for President!" is a chant you often hear amongst the students in the streets. Supporters applaud his desire for a wealth tax in France, for lowering the voting age to 16 and for being the only presidential candidate to turn up to French schools to examine the state of them, several demonstrators told me.For Marine Le Pen, the nationalist anti-immigration favourite in France's presidential race, the solution is cutting the country's €11bn contribution to the EU's budget.There is, though, reason to doubt that any new French president, from the left or the right, will be able to break the impasse over France's finances.France is far from alone in Europe right now faced with an ageing population, a generous welfare state to run and a national economy squeezed by outside pressures such as US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and the war in the Persian Gulf.Whether in France, Germany, Sweden or Italy, there is an inherent tension between politicians who hesitate to tell voters the truth about shrinking public finances, the defence establishment's demand for higher defence spending and citizens' insistence on improved public services.In France, that pressure is partic...