Seine-Saint-Denis, just outside Paris, has become a symbol in recent years of France’s troubled suburbs, rife with poverty and plagued by inadequate public services, reports FRANCE 24.
Now the French government is hoping to redress the balance with a raft of new measures, including €10,000 bonuses for civil servants working in the region.
The bonuses – which will go to civil servants who commit to remaining at least five years in Seine-Saint-Denis – was one of 23 measures unveiled by Prime Minister Édouard Philippe on Thursday, aimed at solving the “massive and systemic difficulties” in France’s poorest département (administrative district).
Some 150 new police officers will also be recruited and stricter building regulations introduced in an area where substandard housing is a long-standing problem.
As Philippe unveiled the measures in Seine-Saint-Denis itself, he was joined by a host of French government heavyweights, including the country’s interior, education, health and housing ministers. It was a symbol of just how much Seine-Saint-Denis has come to represent wider concerns about inequality in wealth and living standards across France and the pressure the French government has been under to take action.