Paris (AFP)
Windows "totally rotten", radiators "out of service", mold "everywhere on the walls" and "the worst are cockroaches and bedbugs": the PCF deputy Alain Bruneel questioned Minister Frédérique Vidal on Tuesday on the state of certain university housing estates.
The elected representative of the North recently tweeted a video taken in such a room in Villeneuve-d'Ascq by a student, showing a multitude of insects climbing the wall, and viewed more than 200,000 times.
"I was stunned" during visits to university residences, "it is despicable, unacceptable, a lifeless life in a 9 m2", launched Mr. Bruneel during questions to the government.
"Would you accept that your child lives in this hell?" He asked the Minister of Higher Education.
"Deprived of lessons, of freedom, of student jobs, of their youth, they are all launching this cry of alarm: precariousness is worsening", continued the deputy while the health crisis particularly affects them.
And to accuse: "On an empty stomach, the students turn to associations facing the resignation of the State".
"You have a duty to impose on the Crous a dignified rehousing for the students", and to provide for "the cancellation of rents" and the establishment of a "student income", pleaded the elected Communist.
"It has been more than twenty years that there are residences which are unworthy in this country and it is this government which has released the means", answered Mrs. Vidal, stressing that the rehabilitation of the residence referred to Villeneuve d 'Ascq was scheduled.
"The president of the region (Xavier Bertrand, ex-LR) did not see fit to come in addition to" the State and the metropolis of Lille to finance it, she tackled.
In reaction, the vice-president of Hauts-de-France Daniel Leca (UDI) criticized on Twitter a "sterile controversy" on the part of the minister: last year "was recorded the participation of the Region in the National Research Agency "while" the round table for the city U was completed "with the metropolis.
It also highlights various student aid systems.
Nationally, Ms. Vidal announced a month ago that university tuition fees would be frozen at the start of the next school year for the second year in a row, to help students cope with precariousness.
In January, Emmanuel Macron announced the creation of a "psy check" for students, as well as the establishment of two meals a day at one euro in U restaurants for all students, not just scholarship holders.
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