Emmanuel Macron’s government uses evictions as a tool of control

But if French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has his way, seemingly exceptional steps like this could become the new national norm. Darmanin, never one to miss a chance to be tough on crime, now wants to use social housing as a means of control. Its strategy focuses on non-judicial means of preventing and punishing petty crime, as well as the large-scale social upheaval seen this summer.

In a memorandum sent to prefects in late August, Darmanin ordered local state representatives to show “systematic firmness” in dealing with “offenders and perpetrators of urban violence.”

“We ask you to mobilize all legal tools to evict offenders from social housing,” Darmanin wrote. The letter was signed by the Secretary of State for Urban Policy, an office that was transferred to the Home Office in 2022. This is a sign of the strictly securitary lens through which Macron’s government views the problems of France’s working-class, racist suburbs.

Citing Article 1728 of the Civil Code, which requires that “rented” property be used “reasonably,” as well as a 1989 law on the responsibilities of tenants, Darmanen’s memorandum argues that committing an “offence in the vicinity of a residence” is a violation of the requirement that occupants “peacefully use your home.”

But for housing and civil rights activists, Darmanen’s order doesn’t hold water. Blowing up a car in your neighborhood, for example, or in a nearby city center is, of course, a violation, but it would be a gross exaggeration to say that it is a violation of the rental agreement.

The collective nature of this punishment, directed against entire families, Darmanin’s order violates the basic principles of modern law. “No one is criminally responsible except for his own actions,” says League of Human Rights lawyer Nathalie Tejio, citing the French criminal code and the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man, which enshrine the principle of “individualization.” fines.

“Evicting the family of a convicted person on the pretext that he has committed a crime constitutes an attack on the rule of law and is an unacceptable act of social violence that will only incite further uprisings. The Solidaires union, the League for Human Rights and the National Coordination against Police Violence, as well as other organizations, wrote in a joint press release on September 20. “This political memorandum is intended to satisfy the basic instincts of the far right.”

The government has refused to take serious action to combat the poverty, social exclusion and systemic racism that fuel urban unrest. Instead, he chooses to shift responsibility and liability to the families and people living in the same house as those convicted of criminal acts.

“Instead of looking at what has not been done and what could be done or put in place to prevent the resumption of such uprisings,” Tejio said. Jacobin“The plan is to fine entire families.”

Initiating a knee-jerk, nationalized eviction process, as Darmanen envisioned, would be legally difficult. But at the local level, police departments and prefects are experimenting with different harassment methods to keep social housing residents and working-class workers of color in line.

Nice, the country’s fifth largest city, has become something of a testing ground. Its mayor, Christian Estrosi, like Darmanin, an aide to former right-wing President Nicolas Sarkozy, has experimented with many of the policies the interior minister would probably hope to see at the national level.

“Nice is in fact a laboratory of neoliberalism, where many forms of discrimination against vulnerable populations and minorities are experienced,” says activist Zohra Briand of the housing rights organization Droit au Logement. In this southeastern city, public housing has been brought under the thumb of local elected officials who control the board of governors of the region’s leading social housing provider (in much of the rest of the country they remain at least formally independent).

In Nice, there was a precedent for evicting so-called delinquents even before the riots. In April 2021, an agreement was signed between the Côte d’Azur Habitat, the local prosecutor’s office and the prefect allowing local authorities to “share information” about social housing tenants with their landlords. Based on this text, eviction proceedings can be initiated if the tenant is convicted or even suspected of committing a crime. In a widely publicized case in 2021, a mother was evicted from social housing because her adult son was convicted of drug dealing.

Local civil rights groups and housing activists have opposed the agreement, citing data protection concerns, warning of privacy violations from the unauthorized sharing of sensitive information they say it entails.

Anthony Borre, director of the Côte d’Azur Habitat and deputy mayor of Nice (Estrosi’s first deputy), has a saying that he repeats religiously: “Social housing must be earned.” In a public speech, he slyly introduced an “anti-separatist” discourse, talking about the fight against crime: “Social housing is not for the enemies of the republic.”

A lot of things are mixed up here: “enemies of the republic”, “criminals”, “separatism”. It is precisely this kind of confusion that has been formalized by Darmanin’s notorious new “anti-separatism” law, which allows the state to disband civil society organizations considered to be promoting anti-republican ideas. One purported goal is to strengthen the state’s arsenal against Islamism, but the main effect of this campaign has been to weaken the ecosystem of groups organizing in working-class communities. In another example of the effort to discipline France’s working class after the riots, the education ministry ordered a ban on girls wearing abayas this school year.

“The model that is being implemented, and we will see if it is generalized, is to link the justice system, the police and social housing managers,” says Domergue of the Abbé Pierre Foundation. “If an offense is suspected, the social housing manager will be notified and may initiate a procedure.”

Zohra Briand and her fellow activists have seen an increase in evictions on false grounds such as “offences”, “neighbourhood disputes” and other forms of anti-social behaviour. A single mother was recently evicted following a noise complaint caused by the sound of her young children playing. “For these people,” Briand says of the alliance between housing managers and local authorities, “a charge of verbal aggression would amount to an offence.”

“People are being kicked out of their apartments. The only way for public authorities to meet commitments to reduce waiting lists for public housing is to evict tenants or force them out due to severe ill health and rising rents,” she continues, noting the underlying trend towards privatization. “What we’re really dealing with is the oppression of a vulnerable population to facilitate private land grabs in the housing stock.”

The brutal attack on public housing in Nice has proven to be an effective cover for dispossessing people from their communities and neighbourhoods. In Paris, where the left’s long-standing control of city hall has prevented the use of more forceful tactics like those employed by Estrosi, activists have warned in recent years that fines for minor offenses and infractions can be used as a weapon.

“The goal is to drive these people out of public places and even drive their families out of their neighborhoods,” Tejio says, pointing to the serial cases of (often dubious) petty crime cases. This has left the families of young and often underage men of color thousands of euros in debt and, she argues, plays a role in the gentrification of areas such as the 10th, 19th and 20th arrondissement of Paris.

“We are creating the conditions for the breakdown of social ties in these communities,” Tejio says. “And every now and then it explodes.”