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French students protest over poverty after attempted suicide

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Students have demonstrated across France to protest over precarity and living conditions, and show solidarity with a young man who set himself on fire last week to highlight the problem.

The 22-year-old – named in some French media as Anas K – is said to be “between life and death” in hospital after suffering 90% burns. He set himself alight last Friday in front of a university building in Lyon, hours after posting details of his own financial difficulties on social media.

On Tuesday a crowd estimated at almost a thousand gathered at the scene to pay tribute. Several students read out the text of his message, in which he described his personal struggle

In Paris several hundred people demonstrated in the evening outside the offices of the student welfare body CROUS, before marching to the nearby higher education ministry. There, some entered a front courtyard after an outside gate was ripped down. There were calls for the minister’s resignation.

Other demonstrations took place in several other French cities including Lille – where former President François Hollande was forced to cancel a meeting – as well as Bordeaux, Toulouse, Montpellier, Nantes and the student’s home town of Saint-Etienne.

In his letter, the young man denounced student precarity for which he blamed successive French presidents as well as the European Union, and called on fellow students to continue the fight against insecurity.

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