2023-06-30 07:48:03
Unfortunate coincidence of the calendar, Matignon must hold the interministerial committee for cities (CIV) this Friday, in the midst of a storm in the districts of France after the death of Nahel, shot dead by a policeman in Nanterre. A meeting during which Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne must unveil the measures of the “Districts 2030” plan… and which was initially to be held in Chanteloup-les-Vignes (Yvelines).
The city itself has been affected by urban violence, in particular the recent municipal police station, whose entrance airlock was blown up. This brings back painful memories of the 2007 riots, which were particularly violent in Chanteloup. Which also makes the mayor (DVD), Catherine Arenou, say that “we don’t deal with urgency in the same way as we deal with substance”.
In view of the context, what do you expect from the “Neighbourhoods 2030” plan?
Catherine Arenou: Beyond the measures that the CIV must announce, we are there in an emergency context and we do not treat the emergency in the same way as we treat the substance. We were very demanding but this context will not stop tonight. All territories are affected, including small ones hitherto spared. All institutions are targeted, not just a police station. It’s a school, a gymnasium, a town hall…
And on the scale of Chanteloup?
Our municipal police premises are unusable. It’s a targeted attack, we’re going to have to find a solution for our seven agents. The problem is that it’s not over… We have to find the words of appeasement.
In Chanteloup-les-Vignes, the entrance to the new municipal police station was attacked by mortar fire. LP
What message are you sending to the public?
The inhabitants of our neighborhoods must not be doubly victimized. Victims of the situation they have been experiencing since the Covid and in particular of the increase in prices and charges over which they have no control and victims of the image of the neighborhoods which will still take a hit. All will be put in the same bag and it is unbearable because 95% of them are respectful people and citizens. They will finally find themselves victims because all that they had managed to acquire in terms of quality of life and public spaces will be destroyed.
Does this context remind you of the urban violence of 2007?
Yes and no. This anxiety, we also felt it rising day by day, but the big difference was that there were no social networks. At the time, we experienced it with the slowness of fixed telephones. Today, at 11 p.m., it’s quiet and at midnight, everything exploded and we didn’t see it coming. Even when we try to appease or protect things, social networks amplify everything.
We feel pessimistic…
It does not despair me that for Chanteloup, I am desperate for all the neighborhoods, for my elected friends who are going through a dramatic situation. Many employees also lost everything while working for the territory. They wake up in the morning seeing fumaroles in their place of life. We will have to accompany them.
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