HASAfter the tragedy of the death, on November 18, 2023, of Thomas, a 16-year-old teenager, stabbed during a popular ball in Crépol (Drôme), the municipality and the Cité de la Monnaie of the neighboring town of Romans-sur-Isère has become a mecca for the construction of national fantasies. This tragedy would testify to a process of “decivilization” involving a collapse of values and the prospect of a civil war. In this process of increasing rifts, the posture opposing cities and countryside appears to be damaging. However, one fact cannot go unnoticed: several of these young people knew each other for the simple reason that they attended the same school.
Contrary to these positions, seen from afar and distorted by pre-existing ideas, the field shows other realities. The sensitive district of La Monnaie is in a situation which can be explained by a long process of relegation, a concentration of poverty and degradation. public services. The hasty stigmatization of an entire population leaves little room for a possible future.
What is perhaps less often said is that a village like Crépol is far from the figure of the homogeneous and opulent rural area. Its status as a village in the second peri-urban ring of Romans-sur-Isère characterizes it differently. In 2020, according to INSEE, the median income there reached 21,070 euros per year, compared to 25,000 euros on average in neighboring municipalities in the first peri-urban ring, and 19,930 euros in the town of Romans- sur-Isère.
Nearly 80% of workers work outside the municipality, which makes the car essential, at a time when the explosion in prices opens up few prospects for its residents. The café-restaurant in the village center, which was the meeting place for people from the country and surrounding areas, has closed. Its drinks license was transferred to a tobacco bar moved near the town hall, itself rebuilt outside the village, as was the school. This is part of the long process of distancing between places of residence, work and living together, which has affected all territories.
Over the past decades, local policies have undergone profound transformations. In Romans-sur-Isère, the idea of popular education offering opportunities for discovery, leisure and social diversity to young people is largely a thing of the past. Since her election in 2014, the mayor [Marie-Hélène Thoraval, divers droite] sharply reduced subsidies granted to social centers and neighborhood centers.
You have 55% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.