The French have ignored the banlieues for many years. England doesn't have ghettos in the same way at all, even if there is a certain number of disenfranchised members in British society.
I went out into some of the "tough" suburbs while I lived in Paris, simply to see what it was like out there. (Horrid to be a "tourist" in such an area, really, but it's as valid a sight as the Eiffel Tower if you want to know France, n'est-ce pas?) And it was grim. In 1995 Chirac talked about doing something about it, but 10 years on nothing much has really happened. It won't be easy, and it won't be cheap, but France really needs to stop ignoring a fairly large segment of the population if they want to move on.
Sadly, recent polls suggest that up to 20-25% of the French population think Le Pen might be the man to do something about the situation. That's just horrible. (And, of course, Denmark is as bad with our Danish People's Party... I'm not saying that France is alone in having a rather unpleasant political climate! France, Italy, Denmark, Austria; it's throughout Europe, it seems.)
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Date: 2005-11-13 05:19 am (UTC)I went out into some of the "tough" suburbs while I lived in Paris, simply to see what it was like out there. (Horrid to be a "tourist" in such an area, really, but it's as valid a sight as the Eiffel Tower if you want to know France, n'est-ce pas?) And it was grim. In 1995 Chirac talked about doing something about it, but 10 years on nothing much has really happened. It won't be easy, and it won't be cheap, but France really needs to stop ignoring a fairly large segment of the population if they want to move on.
Sadly, recent polls suggest that up to 20-25% of the French population think Le Pen might be the man to do something about the situation. That's just horrible. (And, of course, Denmark is as bad with our Danish People's Party... I'm not saying that France is alone in having a rather unpleasant political climate! France, Italy, Denmark, Austria; it's throughout Europe, it seems.)