Students occupy the building of the Sciences Po university in Paris, demanding the resignation of the director of the institution, who is accused of domestic violence
About 100 students from Sciences Po University in Paris have occupied the historic building of the nursery of the French elite since Wednesday night demanding the resignation of its director Matias Viseras, who was questioned by the police on a case of domestic violence.
“The occupation was voted yesterday by a show of hands during a general assembly that brought together between 250 and 300 students,” following a call by the student unions, Ines Fontenelle of the Students’ Union told AFP.
This morning the building was still occupied by about 100 students
Visera and his partner Anissa Bonfon, who aaccused each other of domestic violence, they brought Kyriakor the night before they are released on Monday. The Paris prosecutor’s office ordered a preliminary investigation.
The director of Sciences Po Paris wrote on Tuesday to students, faculty, staff and members of the institution’s boards to assure them that he “hears how they feel” and that he “will meet with them very soon”.
Around 50 students had already blocked entry to the historic Sciences Po Paris building on Tuesday morning.
According to a statement from the students, “his continued presence at the top of our institution is an insult to all victims of gender-based and sexual violence.”
About 15,000 students study at Sciences Po Paris, half of whom are foreign and 25% on scholarship.
Although it is often presented as the factory of the French elite, the Sciences Po Paris university has recorded scandals involving its leaders for about ten years, without for now its academic prestige being damaged.
Mathias Vissera took over as head of Sciences Po Paris in November 2021, taking over from Frédéric Meon, who was forced to resign in February of the same year for concealing suspicions of incest involving the famous analyst, constitutionalist and former Socialist Party MEP Olivier Diemel.
Diemel was then president of the National Foundation for Political Sciences (FNSP) which oversees Sciences Po Paris.
Former student of Sciences Po, from which he graduated in 2000, Matias Visera was a fellow student of the country’s president Emmanuel Macron pthe National School of Administration (ENA), the flagship institution of the senior public sector.
Shortly after arriving as head of Science Po, he declared that his “absolute priority” would be addressing sexual and gender-based violence.
Source :Skai
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