Young people took a leading role in the run-up to last Sunday’s election when the incumbent French president Jacques Chirac won with 82 per cent of the vote against 18 per cent for far right challenger Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Just after the result had been announced, Segol ne Royal, the outgoing socialist minister for family affairs, said she was “proud of the young because they had demonstrated good citizenship”.

The National Front success in the first round of the election in April, brought some 100,000 secondary pupils and university students out into the streets every day between the two rounds.

Le Pen, who accused teachers of organising the demonstrations, won 20 per cent of the 18-24 vote on April 21, up from 18 per cent in the first round of the 1995 election.

Before the ballot, Audrey Bourgeois and Sophie Schindele, two 17-year-old pupils at the Jacques Monot lycee in the Paris suburb of Clamart, told The TES of their fears.

The idea of Le Pen taking power “makes me afraid”, said Audrey. “We have seen in history what the far right does - anything goes. We are ashamed that Le Pen won such a big vote.”

Two 14-year-old college or lower secondary pupils, Chloe and Cecile, said the only way to express their opposition to the far right was to demonstrate.

Their fears of a Le Pen victory included censorship of cinema and books and the prospect of France ditching the euro.

In his election campaign, Chirac vowed that all pupils entering secondary school will be able to write, read and add up.He also promised to develop apprenticeships and vocational training.

The president pledged to reform the colleges so that 60,000 pupils a year no longer leave at 16 with no qualifications. Other measures include giving schools greater autonomy, and ensuring more support for teachers and more parental involvement.

Following the resignation of Socialist prime minister Lionel Jospin on Monday, philosopher Luc Ferry was appointed minister of youth, national education and research in the transitional government. This will run the country until the two-round parliamentary elections in June.