Spaniard22
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- May 14, 2026
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Creil, the city of 100 nationalities that embodies the "new France": "Sometimes I struggle to recognize the place where I was born"
The history of cities is written on their walls. In Creil, with about 37,000 inhabitants, there is a mural with children forming something like a children's UN: Amir, Assan,...
www.mundoamerica.com
"The truth is that sometimes I struggle to recognize my own city", admits Théo Legrand, born 42 years ago in Creil. "More and more people from outside come, and I'm not saying it's bad, I don't agree with the far right. But little by little, you start to feel excluded, as if the place is not yours. And that feeling grows when you have children and take them to school, and you see that you have little in common with other parents."
The author of The Religious Vote recalls how the leader of La France Insuomise, Jean-Luc Melénchon, anticipated the trend and was able to capture 69% of the Muslim vote in the 2022 presidential elections.
"We must not underestimate the religious criterion in the electoral dynamics", emphasizes Jakubowicz, referring in particular to the growing impact that "Muslim communitarianism" (with its strong group belonging ties) is having on voter turnout, as has happened in Creil or Saint-Denis.
Mélenchon has indeed turned the concept of "the new France" into his banner. In his opinion, the country has undergone "significant sociological, economic, and even anthropological changes," and he refers to the data: one in three French citizens today is an immigrant or child of immigrants (compared to one in ten in 1958). The rebellious leader appeals to "unite the different elements" of the new French identity and to bring together "anti-racist, feminist, and labor sectors" to shake the foundations "of oligarchic capitalism and the sclerotic Fifth Republic,"
