Thanks, Tyronen for answering my question about that poll.  I should have suspected it might be behind a subscription wall within The Economist.

And your second point --

The article goes on to distinguish between the grandes ecoles whose graduates walk into highly protected jobs, and the majority of students who get short-term contracts - or chomage.  It is the latter group that is protesting, because the CPE does nothing to grant them access to the upper-tier grande ecole positions.

-- answers much of the question I posed in a comment in the Grandes Ecoles thread.

Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire