Roubaix before the presidential election: “Whoever needs it most does not vote”

Many expect a low turnout in the French presidential election. In Roubaix it has been particularly low for decades. Activists want to change that.

“I think, therefore I choose!” Bruno, Sophie and Sylvie stuck 28 round stickers with this inscription on the high windows of their brick house. Here they head the Citizens’ Committee of the Hommelet district.

“We started the campaign in 2002 because two of the polling stations with the lowest turnout in our region were in our neighborhood! 64 percent didn’t vote. A scandal!” says Bruno. At that time, Marine Le Pen surprisingly made it into the second round. “So we said to ourselves: ‘We have to do something.'”

Posters hang on the walls of the old villa: a rap concert with young people, a district festival, an Easter egg hunt, but also a blog and debates streamed on the Internet. The corona pandemic has restricted everything. But taking part in the life of the district, taking part in the election – that remains Bruno’s philosophy.

“People have lost faith in politicians”

But that didn’t work out in Roubaix, a city where around half of the approximately 100,000 inhabitants are under 30 years old: “It’s getting worse and worse, now we’re already at 90 percent who don’t vote,” he complains. “It’s not like it used to be where they go fishing and lose sight of the elections. Now people have lost faith in politicians. Whoever needs it most doesn’t vote – awful.”

France’s non-voters are young, less educated, from a precarious background – whether workers or employees. There is a lot of poverty in Roubaix, which hasn’t changed in the last 20 years, says Bruno: “There were big textile companies here who laid everyone off – ‘Make it your own!’ In Roubaix, almost half the population is poor, and a quarter go to the food bank for food.” But if you don’t vote, you don’t exist, warns Bruno.

The city is investing in chic cultural projects – like the art museum in the Art Nouveau swimming pool. But Parisians or foreign tourists come there.

unemployment and crime

And how do you motivate the locals to vote? Sophie sums it up: “Solve everyday problems! More jobs, less waste, more parking spaces.”

In Roubaix, where the heating sometimes goes out in social housing in winter, unemployment is falling. However, it is still around 60 percent higher than the national average.

“We didn’t get a cent from the city for our campaign. We use old flyers and recycle our shirts,” says Sylvie, putting on her election shirt, fresh from the laundry. “A poster campaign had to be cancelled.”

The trio sets off and is immediately at the next problem: “We have a dealer McDrive,” says Bruno. “They have a grocery store there that’s open 24 hours a day. Don’t film – the two in the red car in front of it are part of it.” The owner of the shop across the street was blackmailed by them, Bruno reports.

Vote to prevent Zemmour

Uncertainty reigns. But Bruno’s team has also achieved a lot: designed a park on the wasteland of a demolished textile factory – with plants whose fibers are made of fabric. If a green space is to give way to a parking lot, they get involved and ask the citizens what they want.

But the frustration of the residents remains. “No, I’m not going to vote. I have to work. I’m not interested in politics either. They’re all the same,” says one man. “Always the same stories. They promise something and end up doing the same crap only for the rich,” says another. “I’m not going to vote. The election campaign also disgusted me.”

The election campaign in which far-right candidate Eric Zemmour Roubaix mentioned that Afghanistan was two hours from Paris. That hurt people a lot – another bad image, even more ashamed, says Bruno. A television report had previously shown a restaurant with separate compartments for women. It is now closed for hygiene reasons.

“In the current case, we have to choose. Against Zemmour,” say Malik, Mehdi and Omar, three men with African and Arabic roots in front of a block of houses. “We are together, we respect religions. The television dramatized everything. And there was so much hatred during the election campaign.”

A lot has been neglected in Roubaix – the men say that the boxing club only has one helmet for ten children. “We were also in the town hall, asked for a new sports hall. No budget. We were sent away. If we don’t move, it will go against us. With Zemmour or Le Pen in power – it will be a brothel!”

Much encouragement for Mélenchon

A few meters away is the primary school where 20 years ago the polling station with the lowest turnout in north-eastern France was. The posters of the twelve candidates are still hanging in front of them – two have been torn off: those of the right-wing extremist candidates Le Pen and Zemmour.

In the presidential election five years ago in Roubaix, left-wing politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon received the most votes in the first round, almost twice as many votes as future President Emmanuel Macron.

“People here are fed up. But you have to show that! Otherwise nothing will change!”, a passer-by railed. “I choose Mélenchon. And in round two, the lesser evil.”

Back in the district committee, Bruno sometimes has to laugh at all the bleak prospects. The district is already crazy about an election: “There are no non-voters for the Miss Roubaix elections. Everyone wants to be there,” he says. “We also elect a Miss International. They come to us from all over France. The prize is a trip to Japan or America.”

To escape from everyday life? In any case, the non-voters of Roubaix feel forgotten by politics. Now they have forgotten politics.