In Bondy, the town on the outskirts of Paris where Kylian Mbappé grew up, almost everyone has heard his words. On Sunday, in a press conference from Düsseldorf, where he is participating in the Euro Cup, the French footballer urged young people to vote in the next legislative elections, brought forward by President Emmanuel Macron after the setback he suffered in the European elections. They have listened to him, as well as other athletes who raised their voices against the extreme right. But the stars of the ball do not convince everyone here. Some say they will not go to the polls.
Bondy, with 52,000 inhabitants, is part of what is known as the banlieue. 12 kilometers northeast of Paris, here you are very close and very far from the capital. Separated from it by the peripheral, the large ring road that marks the limits of the large city. This town is famous for being the place where Mbappé grew up. William Saliba, Arsenal defender and player for the French national team, was also born here.
In the square in front of the train station, which connects the municipality with Paris in less than half an hour, there are posters of the French team plastered on columns. Not far away, in a large housing block, a mural pays tribute to its captain: a child sleeps hugging a soccer ball and dreams of the number 10 of the French national team. He accompanies it with a phrase: “Love your dream and it will love you back.”
Jean-Michel is 31 years old and prefers not to give his last name. He has been living next to this mural for three years. He has listened to Mbappé’s statements “against the extremes, those who divide”, as well as those of Marcus Thuram, who asked to vote against Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) in the elections of June 30 and July 7. “I think that the statements of athletes about going to the polls have an impact, it is important for young people,” he says while waiting to pick up food at a small hamburger restaurant in the area. But he, personally, is fed up: he will not vote. “You always have to make a barrier [en contra de la extrema derecha]”, he says with a tone of resignation, adding that he voted for Macron in the last presidential elections just to avoid Le Pen’s victory. He now he won’t do it anymore.
The far-right party swept the European elections on June 9 with 31.5% of the votes and polls place it as the leading force in the legislative elections, ahead of the coalition of left-wing parties and the centrists of Macron. Bondy, however, voted mostly to the left: France Insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, obtained 45.7% of the votes. It was followed, at a distance, by Le Pen’s extreme right (16.7%) and the traditional right (9.6%). Both, just ahead of Macron’s list, which took 7.5% of the votes. Seine Seint Denis, where Bondy is located, is the department with the highest poverty rates in the country, according to the French Inequality Observatory.
In Bondy, where many people are second or third generation French, not everyone believes that their vote will be able to change things. In the last European elections, abstention in this town exceeded 61% of the census. In the 2022 presidential elections, it was close to 40% and in the first round Mélenchon obtained more than 53% of the votes, followed by Macron (18.9%) and Le Pen (11.7%).
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The Bondy Football Sports Association trains at the Léo Lagrange stadium, where Mbappé took his first steps. Groups of children run from one side to the other, while the coaches shout orders. On another track, they train with two children outdoors: Idriss and Ilyes, both 22 years old, born in France and with families of Algerian and Moroccan origin, respectively. They won’t go to vote next week either.
“There is no evolution. “If voting served any purpose, it would have been banned a long time ago,” says Ilyes, attributing the phrase to the French comedian Coluche. He does believe that what Mbappé said has some weight. But he didn’t change her mind. Furthermore, he assures, it is already too late to register. When asked if he is not somewhat afraid of the extreme right coming to power, he shrugs his shoulders. “I am French. What are they going to do to me? What makes me sad is for those who arrive.” His friend agrees. “They attack the weakest,” he adds. For them, the media has a great responsibility for the situation, by focusing too much on issues such as Islamism or the veil, when there are “many other problems.” They both believe they would be better off elsewhere. And they assure that when they can leave the country they will leave.
Thierry Pointeau, 66, is the president of the Bondy Football Sports Association. He knows Mbappé well. “I saw him born, he was with us, we were always together,” he says. He is not at all surprised that there are people who have no intention of going to vote. “They have abandoned us for years. So, there comes a time when people no longer believe in politics. Although some politicians are sincere and do a good job. Now it is difficult to climb this hill again,” he says by phone.
He does not doubt, however, the influence that Mbappé and other athletes have among the youngest. “I agree with them 2,000%. You no longer have to sit with your arms crossed, not say anything. With what is happening on the ground, in the stadiums, with the racist shouts. If they don’t move, I don’t know who will. They are absolutely right,” he maintains.
Idriss and Ilyes do some warm-up exercises before starting training. The two children who accompany them, aged seven and nine, imitate them. While they give their opinion on the elections and the statements of the athletes, one of the little ones asks: “What did Mbappé say?”
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