With the health and economic crisis linked to Covid-19, poverty has jumped in France.

Guest from Europe 1 on Sunday, the president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, Pascal Brice, warned of the significant increase in people using food distributions and emergency accommodation.

INTERVIEW

"More and more people" are using food distributions, says Pascal Brice, president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors, Sunday on Europe 1. While food banks are appealing for generosity until Sunday evening to their annual collection, the one who was also director of the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons (Ofpra) explains that this is "the consequence of this economic and social crisis" which France has suffered since last spring.

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Precarious people "in the thick of bureaucracy"

More and more French people are not getting enough food.

So much so that today, eight million people need food assistance to survive.

"It is a reality that we see in our associations", affirms Pascal Brice, who calls for solidarity.

The latter notes in particular a growing precariousness among young people and calls for aid to be extended.

People in precariousness are "in the thick of bureaucracy, on the fringes of society", he laments, campaigning in particular for the extension of the RSA to young people under 25 and the generalization of the youth guarantee.

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A "more individualistic" society

Faced with this scourge, Pascal Brice evokes the loss of social ties, and regrets that solidarity is not always there.

"The solidarity is there, but we are dealing with a long-standing evolution of a more individualistic society", he explains, referring in particular to the middle class which is paying the consequences of this evolution and which, therefore, " wonders about solidarity which is often equated with assistantship ".

The objective of the associations (more than 800 everywhere in France), he says, is to contribute to "rebuilding these reflexes, these policies, these behaviors", because "we are in a moment of social emergency and it is more than ever essential ".

Indispensable, such as access to long-term housing for anyone in need.

Indeed, if more and more French people cannot feed themselves, they are also numerous to not have a roof on the head.

Nearly 200,000 people are currently in emergency accommodation, and many requests have not been met, warns Pascal Brice who calls for "amplifying the movement".