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The University Lumière Lyon 2 has closed its doors on Wednesday for security reasons due to student protests convened this week in several cities in France against university precariousness, after a student was immolated last Friday in that French city after losing the scholarship he enjoyed.

Anas Kournif, 22, was seriously injured after trying to commit suicide by throwing a flammable liquid on top and burning himself in Lyon. He did it in front of the Crous building (Regional Center for University and School Works), the body that manages the accommodation, dining rooms and scholarships of university students in France.

Kournif, who has burns in 90% of his body, "is between life and death," according to the student union Solidaires étudiant-es de Lyon, to which the young man belonged.

This leftist student, who had repeated the second course of Political Science three times, had great financial difficulties after the scholarship he enjoyed to take his studies was taken away. Before I had a help of 450 euros a month.

The young man left, before setting fire, a message on social networks explaining the reasons for his act, claimed a living wage for students and urged student unions to continue the struggle to achieve decent living conditions for the students.

"I accuse [Emmanuel] Macron, François Hollande, [Nicolas] Sarkozy and the European Union of killing me by creating uncertainty about everyone's future; I also accuse [Marine] Le Pen and the editorialists of creating fears more than secondary, "he wrote in what had to be his farewell letter. "Long live socialism, long live self-management and long live social security," he said almost at the end of his message on Facebook announcing that he was about to commit "the irreparable."

"We are all shocked by this drama," said Nathalie Dompnier, president of the Lumière Lyon 2 University today, in a message posted on the website of this university, which has 30,000 students. Dompnier admits that they were not able to detect what was happening to this young student and wonders how these situations can be prevented so that it does not happen again. Following the suicide attempt of the young man, the University of Lyon has launched a psychological support cell for students and friends.

This act raises, according to Dompnier, "a certain number of questions about precariousness, conditions and the standard of living of students." "Many [young people] live in very worrying conditions. Many have difficulties to get accommodation or do it in a decent way, some do not manage to feed themselves. Many live from small jobs that do not allow them to study in a favorable environment," adds the manager of this university , which considers that it is necessary to open a debate "at national level" on the precariousness of the life of university students.

On Tuesday, hundreds of students protested in the main cities of France against university precariousness under the motto "precariousness kills." In Paris, they started the fence of the Ministry of Higher Education. The former president of France, François Hollande, was forced to suspend a conference he was going to give at the law school in Lille for protests.

Frédérique Vidal, Minister of Higher Education, condemned the violence and destruction caused by the students. "The tragic gesture committed by a young man last Friday provokes a legitimate emotion, but the violence does not take place in the university," said the minister.

Unlike in countries like the United States, where most universities have prohibitive prices for many families if students do not have scholarships, studying at a public university in France is very cheap: 170 euros per year for a bachelor's degree , 243 euros for a master's degree, 601 euros for an engineering and 380 euros a year for a doctorate. The most expensive for students is to get decent accommodation, especially in large cities like Paris, where the price of a home exceeds 10,000 euros per square meter.

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  • France
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  • Francois Hollande
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  • Nicolas Sarkozy
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