The recent surge of violence in France has once again brought attention to the suburbs. This raises questions about the lack of success of previous action plans and the conflicting solutions being debated, as well as the potential perspectives they offer.
It was in a training center for young people in the economically disadvantaged northern part of Paris that Emmanuel Macron chose to announce his presidential candidacy in 2016. His intention was to generate a sense of renewal and signal that the youth in our suburbs have potential and deserve our trust.
However, just a few weeks after assuming office in the Elysee Palace in 2017, the newly elected president reduced funding for cities. This meant less money for subsidized jobs and reduced support for housing policies. This was the first setback for mayors. Several months later came the second blow: Macron quietly shelved the “Borloo Report.”
Macron had enlisted the help of Jean-Louis Borloo, former Minister of Urban Affairs, to develop a long-term action plan for the impoverished suburbs. Borloo embarked on a mission to involve all stakeholders and create a comprehensive plan that tackled various aspects such as security, drug control, education, vocational training, culture, sports, building renovation, and digitalization. Importantly, Borloo had also included local politicians. Some of them even spoke of the “euphoria” that the plan had sparked in town halls. Consequently, the disappointment was all the more profound.
A Strained Relationship
Since then, the relationship between mayors and the president has been tense. Although Macron increased funding for building renovations in the suburbs nearly twofold during his second term, investing an additional twelve billion euros, he is received with a cold reception at the annual mayors’ congress. Mayors feel disregarded and patronized. This sentiment was clearly evident during the hastily convened meeting at the Elysee Palace on Tuesday.
Ali Rabeh, the mayor of Trappes in the southwest of Paris with Moroccan heritage, expressed his disappointment: “By organizing these last-minute therapy sessions, you are giving the rioters the impression that attention can only be drawn to the banlieues through unrest and setting fires. This is dangerous! We need to maintain an ongoing dialogue and discuss urban development throughout the year. Otherwise, we cannot effectively bring about change.”
Martial Foucault, a political scientist at the CEVIPOF Institute at SciencesPo University, also criticizes the approach: “Mayors are only summoned when there is a crisis. There is no proactive collaboration with them.” Patrick Chaimovitch, the Green Party mayor of Colombes in the west of Paris, where a three-day curfew was recently imposed, explained in an interview with ARD-Studio Paris: “Our budget has been gradually eroded for years, along with that of associations and local organizations. We are up to our necks. This trend began before Macron, but it has undoubtedly worsened in recent years.”
A Fatal Strategy
Mayors and sociologists argue that the turning point came in the early 2000s when Nicolas Sarkozy, a conservative politician, served as Minister of the Interior. Known for his law-and-order approach, he received acclaim from the right when he vowed to “cleanse the suburbs of criminal scum” following the 2005 riots.
This shift placed a heavy emphasis on policing and security, which had devastating consequences, according to the mayor of Grigny from the Communist Party, who explained in an interview with France Culture radio: “The ‘Kärcher’ strategy must cease. It lies at the core of a police doctrine based on repression. Let’s not forget: Without the fatal incidents between the police and youngmen in the suburbs, such as the events in Clichy-sous-Bois in 2005 or the recent case involving Nahel in Nanterre, the uprisings would not have occurred.”
Education, Education, and Infrastructure: The Key Factors in Tackling the Challenges
According to Philippe Rio, the troubled youth, who are often in dire circumstances, need better support. “In my city of Grigny, 50 percent of young people leave school without a diploma. We need a strong public service. Children should be at the center of the strategy, not the ‘Karcher.’ Merely investing in concrete and building renovations won’t help.”
It’s about education, training, and psychological assistance, as well as infrastructure. For instance, in places like Castellane, a high-rise housing estate in Marseille, residents have to travel an hour by bus just to withdraw money because there are no longer any local bank branches. When there is no post office, no optician, and no pediatrician available locally, people not only feel disconnected but are truly left behind.
Searching for a Way Out
How can we help these neighborhoods, where often more than half of the residents come from families with a migration background and where the unemployment rate stands at 19 percent, double the national average?
Mayors offer different answers depending on their party affiliation. Eric Ciotti, the leader of the conservative Republicans, receives support from many fellow party members in town halls when he calls for punishing the parents of delinquent youth by cutting off their government benefits.
The Republican mayor of l’Hay-les Roses, whose family was attacked and injured during the recent unrest, not only desires more funding for community work but also the ability to use drones for crime prevention. Since 1977, France has implemented over ten action plans for socially disadvantaged neighborhoods. The amount of money allocated for these plans has become a subject of political controversy.
Expenditures for the Suburbs as Part of the Discourse
Different societal groups are pitted against each other. The right and the far-right, in particular, repeatedly emphasize that “everything” is being done for the immigrant-dominated suburbs while “nothing” is being done for rural areas in France. However, Jean-Louis Borloo refuted this claim in a 2021 interview with the magazine “Le 1 Hebdo”: “I condemn this incredible manipulation of figures. When you calculate it per capita, these neighborhoods receive four times less funding than others.”
Sociologist Renault Eppstein refers to it as a poisoned discourse. In 2020, he published a study on 40 years of urban development. “Of course, there are additional funds for the most disadvantaged neighborhoods. But when you look at how much money is spent from regular public coffers, a school in a bourgeois neighborhood is in much better shape than schools in poor neighborhoods.”
Drama or Opportunity?
France is grappling with finding the right answers to the unrest. Political scientist Martial Foucault believes that a more fundamental approach to addressing the suburbs’ issues is necessary. He criticizes: “Emmanuel Macron is doing something contradictory. He says he supports decentralization, which means granting more autonomy to mayors and giving them more power. However, at the same time, he says no to more funding and no to financial autonomy.”
President Macron advocates for swift and tough judicial measures while also emphasizing the need for reflection and understanding. It remains uncertain what a new and sustainable strategy for the development of the banlieues in France will look like.
Jean-Louis Borloo states, “Which country can afford to have 150,000 young people hanging around at the foot of high-rises? It’s absurd! These neighborhoods are either our tragedy or our opportunity. We just need to decide what we want.”