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Embracing Fraternity in a Paris Banlieue Embracing Fraternity in a Paris Banlieue
(about 13 hours later)
PANTIN, France — In a speech before a rare joint session of France’s parliament at Versailles on July 3, French President Emmanuel Macron cast himself as an agent for revolutionary change who would make France whole again, healing the social and economic divides that, he said, rob too many French of the ability to realize their “own place and dignity in society.” He cited “the sadness of public housing schemes where some of our youth are damaged.” And he committed to the “quest for a strong liberty” that would allow citizens to choose the life they wanted to live. “Too many of our citizens,” Mr. Macron said, “feel like prisoners of their social origins.”PANTIN, France — In a speech before a rare joint session of France’s parliament at Versailles on July 3, French President Emmanuel Macron cast himself as an agent for revolutionary change who would make France whole again, healing the social and economic divides that, he said, rob too many French of the ability to realize their “own place and dignity in society.” He cited “the sadness of public housing schemes where some of our youth are damaged.” And he committed to the “quest for a strong liberty” that would allow citizens to choose the life they wanted to live. “Too many of our citizens,” Mr. Macron said, “feel like prisoners of their social origins.”
Two days before Mr. Macron’s speech, I attended a Festival of Fraternity in the town of Saint Denis, located in the administrative department of Seine-Saint-Denis on Paris’s northeastern border, where some of France’s most notorious banlieues — poor suburbs where many immigrants and their French-born children live — are found. The festival was a first for the Observatoire de la Fraternité, or Observatory of Fraternity. Fraternity is, of course, the third item in France’s famous national motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. But brotherly love among the French has been severely tested by a series of recent terrorist attacks — many committed by French-born or raised Islamists — and by ethnic profiling and violence by police against minority youth, the stigmatizing of French Muslims by debates on Muslim women’s dress, and the Islamophobia of the French far right and the failure of successive French governments to address the social isolation, poverty and unemployment in the banlieues.Two days before Mr. Macron’s speech, I attended a Festival of Fraternity in the town of Saint Denis, located in the administrative department of Seine-Saint-Denis on Paris’s northeastern border, where some of France’s most notorious banlieues — poor suburbs where many immigrants and their French-born children live — are found. The festival was a first for the Observatoire de la Fraternité, or Observatory of Fraternity. Fraternity is, of course, the third item in France’s famous national motto: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity. But brotherly love among the French has been severely tested by a series of recent terrorist attacks — many committed by French-born or raised Islamists — and by ethnic profiling and violence by police against minority youth, the stigmatizing of French Muslims by debates on Muslim women’s dress, and the Islamophobia of the French far right and the failure of successive French governments to address the social isolation, poverty and unemployment in the banlieues.
Created after the shocking terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, that killed 130 people and injured nearly 500 others, the Observatory of Fraternity’s purpose is to help address the root causes of the Islamist radicalization of immigrant youth in France. It pledges to combat the poisonous ideology of radical Islam, but also to fight those who would seek to divide French citizens into “categories of populations and territories that are hostile to each other.”Created after the shocking terrorist attacks in Paris on November 13, 2015, that killed 130 people and injured nearly 500 others, the Observatory of Fraternity’s purpose is to help address the root causes of the Islamist radicalization of immigrant youth in France. It pledges to combat the poisonous ideology of radical Islam, but also to fight those who would seek to divide French citizens into “categories of populations and territories that are hostile to each other.”
At the Festival of Fraternity on Sunday, there were people of all ages and walks of life and a large number of groups active in Seine-Saint-Denis. There was Bondy Blog, a journalism endeavor created during the 2005 riots that erupted across France following the deaths of two minority teenagers fleeing police in the Seine-Saint-Denis town of Clichy-sous-Bois. Its purpose is to give voice to those whose voices are too rarely heard. Ghett’Up, which seeks to apply minority empowerment techniques that its founder, Inès Seddiki, discovered during a stay in the United States in 2015, was there, as was Startup Weekend, which helps young people become entrepreneurs. There was also a table manned by the venerable League of Human Rights, founded in 1898.At the Festival of Fraternity on Sunday, there were people of all ages and walks of life and a large number of groups active in Seine-Saint-Denis. There was Bondy Blog, a journalism endeavor created during the 2005 riots that erupted across France following the deaths of two minority teenagers fleeing police in the Seine-Saint-Denis town of Clichy-sous-Bois. Its purpose is to give voice to those whose voices are too rarely heard. Ghett’Up, which seeks to apply minority empowerment techniques that its founder, Inès Seddiki, discovered during a stay in the United States in 2015, was there, as was Startup Weekend, which helps young people become entrepreneurs. There was also a table manned by the venerable League of Human Rights, founded in 1898.
Despite Mr. Macron’s national victory, and the strong showing in Seine-Saint-Denis of the far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his France Unbowed party in the legislative elections that followed the presidential vote, the biggest winner of all was voter abstention — as high as 70 percent in some towns — testimony to the political indifference of citizens who have seen too many governments, on the right and on the left, make promises to improve their lives, only to break them.Despite Mr. Macron’s national victory, and the strong showing in Seine-Saint-Denis of the far-left presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his France Unbowed party in the legislative elections that followed the presidential vote, the biggest winner of all was voter abstention — as high as 70 percent in some towns — testimony to the political indifference of citizens who have seen too many governments, on the right and on the left, make promises to improve their lives, only to break them.
For many of those that I spoke with in Seine-Saint-Denis, even those willing to give the new president a chance, Mr. Macron is tainted by having participated as finance minister in the government of former President François Hollande. Mr. Hollande’s election in 2012 owed much to a strong vote from the banlieues, but his failure to fulfill campaign promises to rein in police abuse and extend the franchise to noncitizen residents (not to mention the rising poverty in some banlieues) tarnished his presidency, and, with it, Mr. Macron.For many of those that I spoke with in Seine-Saint-Denis, even those willing to give the new president a chance, Mr. Macron is tainted by having participated as finance minister in the government of former President François Hollande. Mr. Hollande’s election in 2012 owed much to a strong vote from the banlieues, but his failure to fulfill campaign promises to rein in police abuse and extend the franchise to noncitizen residents (not to mention the rising poverty in some banlieues) tarnished his presidency, and, with it, Mr. Macron.
The head of Bondy Blog, Nassira El Moaddem, said that “salvation will not come from politicians, it will come from us,” adding that the “social links” created by the festival would have a positive outcome. Laetitia Nonone, the daughter of a policeman who founded the group Zonzon 93 to combat youth delinquency in 2008 after her brother was incarcerated, and who participated in the discussion on preventing police violence, said: “It’s not about incriminating the police, it’s about finding solutions. When a young victim of incest is afraid to go to the police, that’s a problem we all must solve. All we are asking is to live with dignity, and that liberty, equality and fraternity really exist.” The head of Bondy Blog, Nassira El Moaddem, said that what she hears in the banlieues is that “salvation will not come from politicians, it will come from us,” adding that the “social links” created by the festival would have a positive outcome. Laetitia Nonone, the daughter of a policeman who founded the group Zonzon 93 to combat youth delinquency in 2008 after her brother was incarcerated, and who participated in the discussion on preventing police violence, said: “It’s not about incriminating the police, it’s about finding solutions. When a young victim of incest is afraid to go to the police, that’s a problem we all must solve. All we are asking is to live with dignity, and that liberty, equality and fraternity really exist.”
In that, she sounded a lot like Mr. Macron in his speech on Monday. Whether or not he delivers, the festival demonstrated that a movement is underway to empower citizens to do for themselves what the French state has for too long failed to do.In that, she sounded a lot like Mr. Macron in his speech on Monday. Whether or not he delivers, the festival demonstrated that a movement is underway to empower citizens to do for themselves what the French state has for too long failed to do.