But “Mélenchon for President!” is a chant you typically hear amongst the college students in the streets.
Supporters applaud his want for a wealth tax in France, for reducing the voting age to 16 and for being the only presidential candidate to flip up to French colleges to study the state of them, several demonstrators instructed me.
For Marine Le Pen, the nationalist anti-immigration favorite in France’s presidential race, the answer is cutting the nation’s €11bn contribution to the EU’s finances.
There is, though, motive to doubt that any new French president, from the left or the proper, will be in a position to break the deadlock over France’s funds.
France is far from alone in Europe proper now confronted with an ageing population, a beneficiant welfare state to run and a national economic system squeezed by outside pressures such as US President Donald Trump’s commerce tariffs and the conflict in the Persian Gulf.
Whether in France, Germany, Sweden or Italy, there is an inherent stress between politicians who hesitate to inform voters the reality about shrinking public funds, the defence institution’s demand for increased defence spending and residents’ insistence on improved public companies.
In France, that strain is notably acute. French public expenditure, at about 57% GDP, is one of the steepest amongst rich nations worldwide.
Social spending, notably on pensions, is exceptionally giant, while French residents pay one of the highest general tax and social contribution burdens in Europe. Simply put, they expect a welfare and public service bang for their buck.
But economist Anne-Laure Delatte does not believe having a new president will ease her nation’s financial migraine.
“We need constitutional change. A new system. A new Republic,” she instructed me.
“Our Fifth Republic is centred around a powerful president. Parliament is there to block him or her rather than to find consensus or to make new laws.”
For France to progress, she says, that has to change.
The French parliamentary election that follows the 2027 presidential vote is probably to be as divided as ever, she believes: “We need a system where MPs have more power and should learn consensus and coalition-building from our European neighbours.”
In her opinion, training had to be protected and funds higher distributed. It was an investment in France’s financial future, she instructed me.
“Our current system of inequality in schooling and low wages for teachers means we lose out from benefiting from the best and brightest across French society. That is not only unfair on individuals but our economy ultimately loses out on innovation and productivity.”
Re-writing France’s structure is not on the playing cards, at the second. So, what about the here and now, I requested centrist politician Anne-Catherine Loisier.
She’s a senator for the Centrist Union in France’s higher home of parliament and vice president of the parliamentary group for sciences and technology.
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