Student precariousness: Emmanuel Macron is in favour of "improving the system" but refuses a universal income

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Ludovic MARIN / AFP 19:50 p.m., October 19, 2023

Emmanuel Macron expressed his opposition to a universal income for students during an impromptu exchange with young people in Paris on Thursday, even though he acknowledged that there are "too many students in precarious situations". "There is no country that helps students more than France on the social level" but "I am not in favor of saying, at 18, we have the right to a universal income without obligation," said the President of the Republic during this exchange, noted AFP.

"I'm in favour of improving the system, but not in favour of an unconditional universal income"

"I believe in qualifying studies to get a job and I believe, behind it, in work. And one of the problems we have in our country today is that we also have a whole generation that has had an RSA (active solidarity income, editor's note) and is still prevented from going to work or has become unaccustomed to going to work," he said. "I'm in favour of improving the system. But I'm not in favour of an unconditional universal income," he added, saying he was in favour of "more control over attendance at exams and success in exams".

"Because today, we also distribute a lot of scholarships to students who don't go (to exams, editor's note). In the queues for food aid, we also have a lot of foreign students," he argued. But, he admitted, "there are still too many students who are in precarious situations, especially in big cities where housing is expensive."

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He hoped "firstly, that we help develop studies in cities where it is cheaper. Two, that we finally have the answer – this is where we are not good – on student housing. We need to bring down the price of student housing. Three, that we have student jobs, when necessary, adapted to studies. In September, fourteen university presidents called in an op-ed published by Le Monde for the creation of a "study allowance for all students" in order to "curb poverty" and facilitate the "development of autonomy" for young people and their access to higher education.

"I don't take private jets"

The head of state was also questioned by a young man about "increasingly expensive groceries". "They tell us to turn down the heating, but next door, they take private jets, it's nonsense," the student said. "I don't take private jets," Macron said. "Secondly, it is not the government that sets food prices," he continues. "On energy, all last year, we wrote cheques to cover more than the increase in prices," he added.

A young man, solicited by the president, then offered an explanation of the reasons for the urban riots at the end of June or beginning of July. "Why did they do that? Because they grow up in neighborhoods where there is nothing," he says, referring to the situation in his hometown of Clichy-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis). "I think that burning or attacking has never solved a problem," the head of state replied.