About 400 researchers and students gathered in Paris on Friday, after a three-month pause in their mobilization, to demand " the abandonment " of the future multi-annual research programming law (LPPR), which must be presented to the Council in July of ministers, noted an AFP journalist.
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The demonstrators gathered in calm, place de la Sorbonne, in front of the doors of the emblematic university closed because of the epidemic of Covid-19, at the call of a dozen unions and the collective " Facs et struggling labs . " " The LPPR is back?" Well so are we, and more determined than ever! », Launched to the crowd Clara Biermann, of the collective of« Facs and labs in struggle », spearhead of the protest movement started in January.
" The government had told us that there would be no new reform, but it is putting the LPPR back on the carpet! ", Carried away Gilles Bourhis, of the FO-ESR union. " We are many for a state of emergency, " welcomed one of his colleagues, before intoning " We are there, even if Macron does not want it!" "
"Passage in force"
The demonstrators denounce a " passage in force " to pass the future law, which was examined this Friday by the National Council for Higher Education and Research (CNESER). After appearing before several other bodies, the text must be presented to the Council of Ministers on July 8. " The government ignores the mobilization in March! "Denounced Cendrine Berger of CGT-Ferc-Sup, adding that the unions would be received on Monday by the Minister of Research, Frédérique Vidal.
On March 5, several thousand researchers and students took to the streets to demand in particular a lasting increase in the budgets of laboratories and establishments, as well as the tenure of precarious workers. At the end of March, in the midst of a health crisis, the government had decided to increase the research budget so that, in 10 years, it will reach 20 billion euros per year, or 5 billion euros more than at present.
An insufficient sum, according to the unions, who also argue that " 10-year budget commitments do not commit the governments to come ." But it is above all the " philosophy " of the future law that they denounce, seeing in it a " selective and competitive " logic that will worsen precariousness. " The additional money will only be directed to the National Research Agency (ANR), which means only short-term projects with contractual employment ," regretted Sophie Pochic, of FSU-Research.
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