Louise Sallé, edited by Alexandre Dalifard 07:06, March 09, 2023

This Thursday, it is the student unions which are mobilizing in turn against the pension reform.

Blockades in about thirty faculties and schools were carried out on Wednesday but so far, students and high school students are rather rare in the processions of the demonstrators.

In the social mobilization against the pension reform, this Thursday, March 9 is dedicated to youth.

However, high school students and students have not been very heard so far in the protest.

On Tuesday, the unions counted 300 high schools and 40 universities blocked, against fifty high schools and twenty disrupted campuses, according to the government.

Nothing to shake the state.

But then, why does the mobilization of young people not take?

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Several reasons can be put forward.

On the one hand because the actions took the form of the traditional "blockade", which has not really been successful since the pandemic.

Imane Ouelhadj, president of Unef, one of the main student unions, recognizes this.

"After two years of health crisis where universities were completely closed, and a recovery that was difficult, with a lot of courses in hybrid format, the idea of ​​​​ending the year only with online courses is not an option that is possible for us", she admits.  

"Because when a blockade is declared, the university management often takes the decision to close the establishment and to switch the courses online", specifies the student.

"That's why we are thinking about other methods of action," hastens to add Imane Ouelhadj.

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Topics of concern to young people carefully avoided by the government

For Mathys Dupuis, a history student at the Sorbonne and president of a youth movement of a political party called Demains, the reform project is of little interest to 16-25 year olds.

"The real subjects on which young people are looking are the questions of the climate and purchasing power", he argues.

“Not questions that will concern us in forty years”.

To avoid stirring up anger by addressing issues directly related to students, the government has carefully postponed the timetable for the scholarship reform, when a first step should have been taken in January.