French govt under pressureafter student sets himself on fire

LYON: The French government on Wednesday attempted to defuse the anger caused by the attempted suicide of a student who set himself alight to protest the hardships of his university life. The 22-year-old student suffered burns on 90 percent of his body after attempting to take his life outside a university building in Lyon in southeast France last Friday. The man, who had recently lost his student grant and whose identity was withheld for privacy reasons, remains in serious condition in hospital. President Emmanuel Macron deplored the student´s “tragic” gesture at a cabinet meeting Wednesday and expressed his “empathy and compassion”, government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said. But Ndiaye said “nothing” could justify the acts of vandalism committed during protests triggered by the man´s self-immolation, which he blamed in a Facebook post on the policies pursued by France´s leaders. On Tuesday, several hundred students demonstrated in Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux and Paris, where protesters tore down the gate of the higher education ministry and scrawled “financial insecurity kills” on the wall.