PARIS (AP) — French far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday celebrated high school students whose protest movement has shaken France as he called at a campaign rally for lowering the voting age to 16 and an end to selective admission to universities.
The fiery anti-capitalist Mélenchon also took aim at U.S. President Donald Trump, NATO and the global financial system, in a sweeping speech to thousands of supporters meant to kick his campaign into high gear for next year's two-round election in April and May.
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Students hold a banner with the face of French Education and Research Minister Edouard Geffray as they stand in front of a blockaded high school to protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
FILE - Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella and far-right leader Marine Le Pen attend a rally in Lievin, northern France, on July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
Police officers spray students with pepper spray near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A person holds a French national flag during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate at the presidential election gives a speech during the annual Braderie in Lille, northern France, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, file)
Also Sunday, France's Socialist and allied voters chose European Parliament lawmaker Raphaël Glucksmann as their presidential candidate in a primary election marred by a cyberattack and divisions within the mainstream left.
President Emmanuel Macron is finishing his second term and cannot run again, so next year’s election will be a turning point for France and Europe. France is the EU’s only nuclear power, its second-biggest economy and a linchpin of the shared euro currency zone.
At this stage, polls suggest that Mélenchon and center-right candidate Edouard Philippe are behind far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, but ahead of a range of other hopefuls. It remains to be seen if they will maintain their current level of support.
The nationwide high school protest movement — over deteriorating school buildings, teacher shortages, and inequalities hurting schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods — has energized young voters, who may prove key to the election outcome.
The movement has at times turned violent, and police have made more than 6,600 arrests. Hundreds have been injured, including students, teachers and police.
Mélenchon’s critics say he and his France Unbowed party are fueling the fire for electoral gain; Mélenchon says his party isn’t organizing the movement and wants it to be peaceful.
The party invited student protesters to the stage at Sunday's rally in the southern city of Clermont-Ferrand, and Mélenchon said their protest movement shows ‘’a high level of political and union maturity.''
Many protesters are under 18, and Mélenchon — who is 75 and on his fourth presidential run — nodded to that future electorate by proposing to lower the voting age to 16.
He denounced the national university admissions platform that has frustrated student protesters, saying selective admissions should be scrapped and knowledge shouldn't be turned into ‘’merchandise.''
More protests are planned Tuesday and next Saturday.
The school protests have pushed the government to order urgent hires of substitute teachers and rearrange school schedules to address grievances. Students at the barricades say that’s not enough, but the movement has shown young people the power they can wield, and Mélenchon is hoping it translates into higher youth turnout at the ballot box.
This movement is ‘’marking their entry into politics,'' high school librarian Dounia Georgeon told The Associated Press at a protest this week at her school in eastern Paris. The muscular police reaction is likely to have lasting impact on the students and their politics, she said.
Mélenchon also reached out Sunday to older voters, calling for lowering the retirement age to 60 from 62. And he reiterated his push to cancel France's staggering debt.
He called Trump an ‘’adversary'' because of his tariffs, and said France should lead a more independent foreign policy.
‘’We're not preparing our children and grandchildren to die for some hazardous operation concocted by NATO,'' he said. His campaign platform says NATO membership is ’’against France’s interests,'' calls for better dialogue with Russia, and does not mention Ukraine.
Also this weekend, Philippe and centrist candidate Gabriel Attal, both former prime ministers appointed by the unpopular Macron, held rallies.
Students hold a banner with the face of French Education and Research Minister Edouard Geffray as they stand in front of a blockaded high school to protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Teresa Suarez)
FILE - Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella and far-right leader Marine Le Pen attend a rally in Lievin, northern France, on July 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, File)
Police officers spray students with pepper spray near Sciences Po university as they protest against under-resourced schools, in Paris, Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
A person holds a French national flag during a protest against under-resourced schools in Paris, Thursday, Oct. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)
FILE - French far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, candidate at the presidential election gives a speech during the annual Braderie in Lille, northern France, Saturday, Sept. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias, file)
CAIRO (AP) — A projectile struck a passenger terminal at the international airport in Riyadh on Sunday, a day after a missile hit the same terminal and killed 12 people, the Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen said. The Houthis claimed responsibility for those attacks and others.
Saudi authorities said there were injuries in the latest attack on the King Khalid International Airport complex for terminals 3 and 4 for domestic flights. Saturday’s missile attack was the deadliest in a Gulf Arab nation since the Iran war began, with another 300 people wounded, some critically. The airport was still closed Sunday.
The sharp escalation in the new front in the war threatens to draw in greater U.S. military involvement, as President Donald Trump has said he is weighing joining the fight against the Houthis. There was no immediate White House comment Sunday.
India’s embassy in Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens died Sunday of injuries sustained in Saturday’s attack, which would bring the toll to 13. Saudi authorities later said King Fahd International Airport in Dammam also had been attacked, with few details. The city is on the Persian Gulf near Bahrain and Qatar.
The latest strike in Riyadh came shortly after the Houthis said the airport in the rebel-held Yemeni capital of Sanaa had been struck again, and blamed the Saudis.
At stake, again, in this escalation are global supplies and prices of oil as well as commercial shipping through a crucial alternative waterway to the Iran-threatened Strait of Hormuz — along with civilians and aviation throughout the region.
Trump on Saturday also said he planned to speak with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been seeking assistance.
A U.S. intervention could prompt the Houthis to halt shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait at the southern end of the Red Sea off Yemen and further restrict the flow of oil out of the Persian Gulf. The rebels seized key areas along the strait last month and the Saudi-led coalition has been trying to seize them back.
Saudi Arabia is running low on missile interceptors and has asked France, Britain, Pakistan and Egypt to deploy air defense support to the region, regional officials told The Associated Press last month, with one noting that the U.S. has seen its own stock dwindle during the war with Iran.
Sunday’s attack occurred as the Saudis hosted a major international energy conference in Riyadh, with other high-profile events including an investment gathering on the horizon. Saudi Arabia under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has sought to open more to the world as a business and tourism destination, but the Houthi attacks threaten those efforts.
“There is no way that somebody will break our back. We are like a phoenix, we come out of the ashes all the time,” the Saudi energy minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, told the conference.
He added that the kingdom is also working on pipelines in addition to the East-West one that was attacked and closed for days last month, with no details.
Earlier Sunday, the Houthi-run health ministry said a child was killed and six people wounded in a suspected Saudi airstrike on a house in Sanaa. The ministry also said 91 Yemenis have been killed by the Saudi-led coalition in five weeks, 60% of them women and children.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi authorities on the claims.
On Sunday, the Houthis claimed the attack on the airport in Dammam as well as attacks on oil and gas facilities in the kingdom’s east. They have targeted the Riyadh airport, which has no military facilities, every day since Wednesday.
The rebels again warned “all airlines, experts, employees, workers and travelers against using Saudi airports and airspace, as they are vulnerable to attack and have become a theater of operations for our forces.” Several international airlines have suspended flights for varying periods.
Saudi authorities said the dead in Saturday’s attack included four Saudi citizens, two Bangladeshi nationals, a Palestinian, a U.S. citizen, an Egyptian, a Jordanian, a Syrian and a Sudanese.
The Egyptian woman was a flight attendant for Saudi airline Flynas identified as Azza Ramzy, according to Egyptian state-run TV.
The Syrian woman was a widowed mother who had been living in Saudi Arabia, relative Nisreen Oweida told The Associated Press. The Syrian Embassy identified her as Buthaina Ahmad Oweida.
Until recently, the Houthis had been largely on the Iran war’s sidelines, but they have developed their military capabilities in recent years to become one of Tehran’s most powerful allies. Now, they are helping Iran to pressure a key U.S. ally.
The Saudis and the Houthis began fighting in 2015, when the kingdom entered Yemen’s civil war on behalf of the internationally recognized government. Relative calm after a 2022 ceasefire ended in July when the Houthis resumed attacks, saying the Saudis fired on the Sanaa airport as a plane from Iran was trying to land.
The attack revived anger over the Saudi-led blockade that has largely isolated Houthi-run areas. The rebels say they have now imposed a blockade on Saudi Arabia.
Fighting has escalated, with the Saudi-led coalition providing air support for Yemeni government forces attempting to reverse recent Houthi gains near the Bab el-Mandeb, a crucial alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran has attacked ships.
Ahmed Nagi, the International Crisis Group’s senior analyst for Yemen, said the Houthi pressure tactics could backfire: “Rather than pushing Riyadh to step back, attacks on critical Saudi infrastructure could make the Saudis more determined to continue the campaign.”
A previous version of this report has been corrected to show that the Egyptian killed was a woman, not a man.
Frankel and Anna reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Victoria Eastwood in Cairo, Collin Binkley in Washington, Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut and Omar Albam in Maarat al-Numan, Syria, contributed to this report.
A displaced Yemeni family sits beside a makeshift shelter along a roadside in Aden, Yemen, Sunday, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Abdulnasser Alseddik)
A portrait of Buthaina Ahmad Oweida, the Syrian woman who died in yesterday's attack on the Riyadh airport, is displayed on the mobile phone of her nephew at her family house, in her hometown of Hafasraja, Idlib province, Syria, Oct. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)
People gather outside a metro station on the road to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
People gather outside a metro station on the road to King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Saturday, Oct. 10, 2026. (AP Photo)
This image from video obtained and verified by AP shows thick black smoke and flames rising from a fire at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026. (UGC via AP)
