Only one vote was missing from the Socialist deputies on Thursday. Not to vote against the pension reform, but for a text offering access to meals at one euro for all students, a price today reserved for scholarship holders and precarious.
The fate of this bill, examined at first reading, was decided by one vote, 183 “for” and 184 “against”. The presidential camp, hostile to this measure, notably managed to recall its troops to the hemicycle for the final vote. Seven LR deputies also tipped the scales by voting “against”, while four others abstained.
” I’m disapointed. Except for one vote, the one-euro universal meal was enshrined in law, but it is above all the students who will be disappointed today,” reacted Socialist MP Fatiha Keloua-Hachi, who carried this text as part of of a day reserved for his group. Access to one-euro meals is currently reserved in university restaurants for students on scholarships or in a precarious situation.
A measure of “90 million euros”?
“For the youth to continue to be mistreated and to be hungry, you can say thank you to the government and to the macronists! We will continue to fight for the future of our country! “said MP LFI Mathilde Panot on her twitter account. The text supported by the entire left, had also received the support of the deputies of the National Rally.
The first victorious votes on amendments hinted at a possible socialist victory, before the presidential camp mobilized deputies for the final vote. Macronist deputies fought a measure deemed “unfair”, insisting that it would also have benefited students from wealthy backgrounds.
MP Anne Brugnera (Renaissance) pinned a “demagogic” measure. “Thanks to you, the children of your friend Bernard Arnault will be able to go to the Crous and only pay one euro,” added his colleague Sylvain Maillard. Alexandre Portier (LR) for his part pleaded for access to the price of 1 euro to be conditional on a commitment to “work two hours a week in the service of a local community”.
The Minister of Higher Education Sylvie Retailleau pleaded against the measure, the cost of which she estimated at at least “90 million euros”. She underlined the existence of social tariffs for meals for “students in difficulty”. The 1 euro meal had been temporarily extended to all students in 2021, during the Covid-19 pandemic.