The deputies must vote, this Thursday, a bill limiting to 1€ the price of each meal in the university canteens of the Crous, for all the students.
1€. This is the price of each university meal for all students that Fatiha Keloua Hachi wishes. Deputy Nupes of the 8e constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis defends in the National Assembly, this Thursday, February 9, 2023, a bill aimed at regulating the price of the tariffs offered in the canteens of the universities. A system now in place for scholarship and precarious students that the elected official wishes to extend to everyone. This would not be entirely new since the government had implemented it in the second half of the 2020-2021 academic year, in the context of the Covid pandemic which had aggravated student precariousness, in particular due to the numerous losses partial jobs. However, this only lasted six months before the tariff applied again only to the poorest.
However, according to the elected official, “during the few months of applications (from the generalization of meals at €1, editor’s note), there will have been almost as many non-scholarship students as scholarship students to have benefited from the measure, and the number number of meals distributed will have been multiplied by five.” For her, “the success of this device actually testifies to the failure of the student grant system.”
Thus, Fatiha Keloua Hachi proposes to the deputies to adopt a text which provides that “the pricing of the meals distributed by the regional centers of university works, in all their catering sites, cannot be higher than 1 euro.” A device that she wishes to compensate by “the creation of an additional excise tax on tobacco.”
Macronist deputies oppose it, LR also against
Before its arrival in the National Assembly, the bill was studied by deputies in the Committee on Cultural Affairs and Education. Composed in the majority of elected Macronists, the commission modified the text which arrives in the hemicycle, on the proposal of the deputies Anne Brugnera (Rennaissance), Sophie Mette (MoDem) and Anne Le Hénanff (Horizons), by removing the limit of the price at €1, which is the very essence of the text. “The lasting extension of this very social pricing to all students would contravene the principle of equity insofar as it would apply without conditions of resources, to the wealthiest as well as to the poorest”, we justify in the ranks of the majority.
The bill does not arouse the support of the Republicans either. In a column published on Le Figaro, Alexandre Portier, LR deputy for the Rhône and professor of philosophy, believes that “the idea is unfair, infantilizing and terribly demagogic. The elected official believes that this will only concern students from large cities because “with fewer than 800 structures, the he offer of the Cnous does not currently cover all the towns hosting university sites. In our country, nearly 20% of students would not have direct access to this offer”, quantifying the number of students concerned at 500,000.
Fatiha Keloua Hachi does not lose hope since she has tabled an amendment which will be put to the vote of the deputies, which aims to restore the initial version of her text by offering “every student, twice a day, a meal whose price cannot exceed one euro” on university catering sites. “This is an emergency measure, which tends to fight against food insecurity among students pending a substantial reform of the scholarship system,” she defends. Will she be heard?