Macron, Le Pen or abstain: In Paris suburbs, voters face devil’s choice as French election looms

For Aliti Faya, it’s as if time has stood still for two decades.

It was 2002 when he and other young left-leaning French voters in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis were faced with a tough choice: save the republic by choosing conservative standard-bearer Jacques Chirac, or allow far-right extremist Jean-Marie Le Pen to become president of France.

Then, five years ago, came yet another devil’s choice: the far-right maverick’s daughter and political heir, Marine Le Pen, against the centrist newcomer Emmanuel Macron.

And now, yet again, voters face a rematch on 24 April between the two candidates, Ms Le Pen and Mr Macron, both of whom Mr Faya despises.

The 54-year-old engineer and others in this district – considered crucial because its voters and others may swing the election – may very well avoid the polling stations next Sunday, or else cast blank ballots to show their disgust.

Some may even vote for Ms Le Pen in protest against what they describe as Mr Macron’s elitism, neo-liberal economic schemes and policies targeting minorities.

“It’s not the first time we face this situation,” Mr Faya said. “It’s the third time. Some people went to vote for Macron thinking something is going to change. But nothing changed with Macron.”

The path to Mr Macron’s victory over Ms Le Pen in the 24 April presidential runoff courses through the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint Denis and other banlieues like it.

Here, during the 10 April first-round of the presidential elections, some 70 per cent of voters in the mostly poor, largely Muslim and African stretch of the banlieue turned up to the polls to vote, overwhelmingly for the leftwing candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon.

He received 49 per cent of the vote across this French department and as high as 62 per cent in some subdistricts like Isle Saint Denis, a working-class island on the River Seine. Overall, 7.7 million French voters supported Mr Melenchon, who placed third in the nationwide balloting.

Those voters, who tend to be younger and more ethnically diverse, are now up for grabs. But while they came out in droves on 10 April, many now voice despair, resentment and anger bordering on rage at Mr Macron.

“This is a tragedy!” said Hakima Khelfa, a political scientist at Sorbonne University who studies Ile Saint-Denis’ unique citizen-run local government and works as a political outreach coordinator for the municipality. “It’s the same situation as the previous election. People are fed up.”

There is a widespread perception that Mr Macron is a tool of the rich and an elitist who sneers at the people here, barely considering them part of French society.

Indeed, in the last couple years of his presidency, Mr Macron veered to the far right, advocating harsh policing and anti-Muslim policies that targeted France’s largest religious minority.

Mr Melenchon, on the other hand, has been hailed by supporters for seemingly embracing the people of the banlieue as fellow citizens, or at least speaking to them in the same way he talks to other voters.

“Melenchon listens to people; Macron has mostly contempt,” said Marie Anquez, a deputy to the mayor of Ile Saint-Denis.

“For Macron the people who live in the banlieue are a problem. Melenchon doesn’t consider them a problem, but a resource.”

Seine-Saint-Denis is one of the most densely populated regions of western Europe, with nearly 7,000 inhabitants squeezed into every square kilometre. Popularly known as “the 93” for its postal code, it is among the most immigrant-heavy regions of France.

It is rife with social problems, including drug trafficking, and streetside dealers openly plying trade on street corners and small parks, even visible from the windows of the town hall.

Xural.com