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While the students show their anger after the tragedy in Lyon, the Unef and the Fage were able to talk with the government to make their demands known. AFP Photos / Philippe Desmazes

Six days after the immolation of a 22-year-old student in front of a university restaurant, Gabriel Attal, Secretary of State to the Minister of Education, received the main student unions Unef and La Fage. For the unions, this tragedy is symptomatic and we must act.

The financial difficulties of the students to find accommodation, to take care of themselves, to feed themselves are such that there is an urgency to find solutions. The first union student Fage demanded Thursday after a meeting with the government an " urgent reassessment " of university scholarships, after the immolation of a 22-year-old student in Lyon who caused mobilizations on campus .

After his meeting with Gabriel Attal, Secretary of State and the cabinet of Frédérique Vidal, the Minister of Education, Orlane François, union student Fage, recalls the speech of President Emmanuel Macron on fiscal discipline and him asks to invest in students.

" What blocks, we must not lie, is the financial commitment. The President of the Republic announced a few days ago in Brussels that the rule of 3 % [budget deficit Ed] was exceeded, that it had to come out and that a State had to invest. Me, I give him the pole to tell him that higher education, student life issues are an investment and that we must break the rule of 3 % for higher education and that we must invest to the height needs and do not be afraid of it. "

A specific status for students

But for now, there is no concrete answer, laments Mélanie Luce, Unef. She wants things to change: " Students need to be listened to. Student precariousness must stop. That is why we invite you to act quickly for an emergency plan to redesign social assistance, a status for students that guarantee access to health, housing and transport throughout France. "

For the student unionist, the students are in a situation where they need a specific status: " All the problems that have come up to us are problems of transport, housing and catering. Because when you're young, you're in a hole in social protection. We are in a situation where we are supposed to be independent of our parents. We are supposed to be legally autonomous, but in reality we are not. "

►Also read: After the immolation of a student in Lyon, anger against the authorities

From Friday, the exchanges with the unions and the government will continue and in the expectation of concrete announcements the students remain mobilized.