Lyon, January 21, 2021. Students demonstrate to denounce their distress and their isolation in the face of this health and social crisis linked to Covid-19.

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E. Frisullo / 20 Minutes

  • In Lyon, students demonstrated on Thursday to demonstrate their isolation and distress after suicide attempts by two young people.

  • Mobilized for better living conditions in the face of this lingering crisis, they particularly insisted on the urgent need to reopen universities.

Only his eyes protrude above his mask.

And in his gaze, we read fatigue, distress, anger.

For the first time in a long time, Claire, 18, left the four walls of her studio to participate in the student demonstration organized this Thursday in Lyon.

A call for mobilization launched by the inter-union two weeks after the suicide attempts of two students from the metropolis.

After Paris, Lille, Toulouse or Rennes, on Wednesday, the Lyonnais in their turn marched between the Manufacture des Tabacs and the rectorate to shout their distress and their isolation in the face of this health crisis that dragged on and demand their return in person to the University.

But only a few hundred of them mobilized.

A bad sign for Mehdi, a student of Lyon-2, who explains this procession little provided by the massive isolation in which his generation has been immersed for months.

One year after the immolation of Anas in Lyon, "nothing has changed"

“Most of my friends didn't even have the courage to come and protest.

They no longer believe in anything, they stay in their studio, without seeing a better future, he says.

And it is not with the pseudo-measures announced by Castex or Macron this morning that I will succeed in convincing them.

"Claire, a first year student at Lyon-3, has chosen to take to the streets to cry out her anger.

“A year ago, Anas set himself on fire in Lyon and nothing has changed since.

We are being killed, I understand the students who try to commit suicide, ”says the 18-year-old girl, who arrived from Grenoble at the start of the academic year to follow a course in Political Science in Lyon.

Like so many others, she only had one month to go to college, feel like a student and make friends.

But since the second confinement, followed by curfews, sources of pleasure are rare.

Generation Covid, a group to break isolation

“I live far from my family in a 20 m2 room.

I spend my days between my bed and my desk, adds the student, who admits to having dropped out of distance learning.

As long as the universities do not reopen, we will not have a future.

"To allow students to express their discomfort, their loneliness, their concerns, students from Lyon created Generation Covid, shortly after the defenestration of a young person in Villeurbanne, followed by another suicide attempt, three days more late.

“Today, this group brings together 2,000 people.

We feel a great distress among the students, neglected and misunderstood.

We are truly a sacrificed generation.

Precariousness and loneliness existed before, but we can see that the Covid has exacerbated everything, ”underlines Racha, registered in law and political science at Lyon-3.

"Staying locked up makes you crazy"

This Moroccan woman left her family three years ago to study between Rhône and Saône, where she lives alone.

“But I'm well surrounded, it's okay.

It's just that staying locked up all day makes you crazy, ”continues the one who wants only one thing: to be able to return to class.

In the procession, the young people are making other demands, such as an increase in the number of scholarships, measures against precariousness or the development of psychological support, but the first urgency for them is indeed the reopening of universities.

“We reopen Primark, H & M, but we leave the universities closed, it is inconsistent.

And since the universities are closed, the cases of Covid continue to increase, “annoys Racha, who has the feeling of having been stigmatized.

Louise, 21, can only agree, she who feels the students forgotten in this crisis, as well as cultural places or restaurateurs.

“Except that we are constantly spitting on us, we are accused of spreading the virus, we are infantilized.

While we only ask to be able to return to class, ”testifies this student from Lyon-3, who admits to“ being afraid ”.

“We are afraid for our friends, for our future.

We are no longer able to project ourselves, ”adds Louise, who, failing to manage to follow“ unsuitable ”course days at a distance, also gradually drops out.

A growing unease in the ranks of students to which Emmanuel Macron responded on Thursday by announcing in particular the possible return to class once a week, with a gauge limited to 20%.

And the setting up of two meals a day for one euro in Restaurants U. "It's better than nothing but that's not how we will calm our phantom generation and help us feel alive. », Mehdi concludes.

Society

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Miscellaneous

Lyon: A law student between life and death after throwing himself from the 4th floor of his university residence

  • Demonstration

  • Society

  • Covid 19

  • Coronavirus

  • Lyon

  • University

  • study

  • Depression

  • Frederique Vidal