At the Davos of the suburbs, the State thanked, the financial elites canvassed | EUROtoday

LHas France made a mistake in its strategy to working-class suburbs? “For nearly forty years, successive governments have asked themselves: 'What should we do with these areas in terms of security, social issues, and urban planning?'” summarizes Aziz Senni, a 47-year-old entrepreneur, on Tuesday, September 17, within the amphitheater of the Palais d'Iéna in Paris. “But none of them really asked the question: 'What should we do from an economic point of view?'” continues the person who co-founded the UDI.

The working-class suburbs are witnessing a monumental waste: since 1977, greater than 100 billion euros of public cash have been spent on city renovation, tax exemptions for firms that arrange there, and many others. However, unemployment there stays at this time at 23%, 3 times increased than the nationwide common.

Mobilizing the financial elites

Stop or encore? Already in 2018, the pinnacle of state Emmanuel Macron rejected the 19 proposals of the Borloo plan, a veritable financial and social huge bang, costing 48 billion euros. Too costly within the eyes of the Élysée. It is due to this fact not stunning that, 5 years later, “political inertia” adopted the city riots of the summer time of 2023, as Thierry Beaudet, the president of the Economic, Social and Environmental Council, identified in his opening speech on the Economic Forum of the Suburbs.

ALSO READ Extension of the suburban area: these cities gained over by “suburbanization” This “Davos of the suburbs” was held on the Palais d'Iéna in Paris on September 17 and 18, on the initiative of Aziz Senni. Among the targets: “to double, by 2030, the amount of public and private investments, national and foreign, directed towards the suburbs”, declared Aziz Senni. The methodology requires “mobilizing the economic elites: the best, the biggest, the strongest”.

“Big” and “strong”, Xavier Niel actually is. The occasion's sponsor cultivates his picture as enterprise angel by way of its Parisian start-up campus, the most important on this planet, Station F. “We ask a lot of politicians and society,” notes the boss of Free. “But every person who undertakes is capable of changing the world, for better or for worse. That's what the creators of Uber, Airbnb or Free Mobile did. I don't know if we can expect as much from politicians. They can give us small facilitators, but it's up to each of us to seize our abilities to create things, to invent, to innovate and to have a global impact.”

Seeking funding for her dwelling supply enterprise, Yasmine Iamarene is not going to have come for nothing. The 37-year-old entrepreneur, who employs 250 individuals nearly completely in working-class suburbs, was in a position to get in contact with representatives of an funding fund and a supervisor of the Schneider group, who got here to the Palais d'Iéna. “For us, young people from the suburbs, especially if you are a woman, becoming an entrepreneur is even more unimaginable than pursuing a career as a doctor or lawyer. I also came to tell people like me that they can do it.”

Mayors and regional presidents on the entrance line

The State was shunned, however not utterly banned from the discussion board. The parliamentary teams within the National Assembly have been invited to come back and categorical themselves, in 5 minutes every, on their imaginative and prescient of the financial growth of the suburbs. Among these absent have been the representatives of the Republican Right. Those current (Laurent Marcangeli, Karl Olive, Jean-Noël Barrot, Boris Vallaud, Cyrielle Chatelain, Éric Coquerel and Jean-Philippe Tanguy) have been cautious to not element particular measures. Aziz Senni had publicly warned them a couple of minutes earlier than: “We no longer want to be subjected to decisions taken out of touch with reality, in small Parisian offices, outside of any form of reality.”

Mayors and regional presidents have been extra within the highlight: the president of the Occitanie area, Carole Delga, the mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, and the mayor of Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, made the journey. Particularly in good condition, the latter gave a motivational speech. “I always tell my friends and colleagues in Seine-Saint-Denis to stop with the song “we’re the poorest division in France”. I say that we are the youngest department in France, which tends to become the richest through its capacity for innovation and creativity.” Requested by The Point As he left the chamber, he defended his enthusiasm: “I brought the headquarters of Tesla, Eiffage, Nexity and Samsung to my town.”

Should success tales obscure sure structural issues? In two days, not as soon as have been drug trafficking and Islamist communitarianism, that are plaguing sure neighborhoods, talked about by audio system or moderators. “I refuse the intellectual house arrest that would consist of associating separatism and suburbs in an event like this,” Karim Bouamrane replied to Point. Will fewer and fewer potential traders proceed to make this kind of affiliation? We can hope so.