The true from the false. Are the suburbs “gorged” with social benefits, as Eric Zemmour asserts?

The inhabitants of the suburbs are far too favored according to the president of the Reconquest party Eric Zemmour, who affirmed on CNews on Saturday July 1 that “These people [les habitants des quartiers prioritaires] are gorged, I say gorged, with social allowances and privileges of all kinds”.

The term “gorged” is false, because it implies a notion of excess, as indicated, for example, by the Larousse definition: “Fto overeat someone”. On the other hand, indeed, theResidents of priority urban policy neighborhoods (QPV) more often receive assistance from the family allowance fund: the RSA, allowances for disabled adults or housing assistance, for example. According to INSEE, almost three quarters of the residents of these areas benefit from at least one of these services, whereas it is half on the whole territory.

But this is logical: these neighborhoods are precisely defined by a criterion of concentration of low-income population, which “are therefore home to more people in serious financial difficulty than elsewhere”, describes the National Institute of Statistics. These inhabitants are entitled to this aid and they therefore do not receive more aid than the others in relation to their situation.

In the suburbs, “public facilities and services are massively less present”

There are specially earmarked credits for these QPVs. We can cite the urban renewal plan endowed with 12 billion euros over five years. Nevertheless, inequalities remain. The 2018 report by former Minister Jean-Louis Borloo indicates that in these neighborhoods “municipalities have 30% less financial capacity (…) while their needs are 30% higher”. One of the reasons is that there are fewer owners, therefore less property taxes and less local taxes. The Borloo report also says that “public facilities and services are massively less present than elsewhere”.

For example in Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department in mainland France, more than a third of the population lives in priority neighborhoods. A 2018 parliamentary report looked into his case.
In terms of education, he noted for example that the less well endowed of the colleges in Paris was better endowed than the richest of the establishments of Seine-Saint-Denis. And it’s the same trend in security. For example, the city of Saint-Denis had fewer police officers than other cities for a higher crime rate. Finally, teachers, caregivers or police officers often take their first post in the department, so they are less experienced.