About 2,000 people, mostly students, came out on December 6 to protest in Paris, speaking out against the recently announced significant increase in the French government – 16 times increase in fees for the right to study at a university for foreign citizens who are not residents of the European Union.
The rally, which was originally planned to be “static” and take place in front of the Campus France organization, which is responsible for promoting the French higher education system abroad, turned into a demonstration that won some space. Participants of the protest expressed solidarity with foreigners demanding the resignation of the president.
According to Unef, the second largest trade union of students representing students in France, up to 5,000 people participated in the action.
The reason for the protest was that since the beginning of the 2019-20 school year, students living outside the European Economic Area (EEA) will no longer pay the same registration fees as their European counterparts. They will have to pay 2,770 euros for tuition in the first four courses, and 3,770 euros in master’s and doctoral studies. Until then, the payment will remain 170, 243 and 380 euros, respectively.
“With this increase in fees, we are abandoning poor foreigners, but we fear that this will spread to all students,” said Emma, a student from Paris who wears a yellow vest.
The girl explained her yellow vest by saying that “this is the same anger against the laws of Macron for the rich.”
The student movement, born after the “yellow vests”, now sounds much stronger than last spring. “The universities have a fair and just anger that just wants to join the movement,” continued Emma, while the groups chanted behind her “Emmanuel Macron is the president of the hosts, we will break it in you!”