Four municipalities hope to lessen the feeling of belonging to a single territory by organizing common activities between children in different districts.
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This is a bet on the future that we could summarize as follows: friends, friends forever. This is on that put four mayors of the Essonne department, whose cities are hardly affected by the phenomenon of brawls between rival bands. By organizing common activities for 9-11 year olds, throughout the year, they hope to break, even before it is born, the feeling of exclusive belonging to a single territory, to a single district. “The idea is to ensure that our children meet and build a common story, so that, bigger, they want to put themselves on their heads,” explains the mayor of Epinay-sous-sénart, Damien Allouch (Socialist Party). Highlight of this unprecedented prevention system: the summer summer camp.
Enzo is hilare, with angels, “too happy” at the idea of spending five days with his friends from the “Interco vigil”, understand “inter -municipal”. It is 9:30 a.m. on this Monday at the end of July, in the parking lot of the Maison des Arts et de la culture d’Epinay, around forty children from the four municipalities stirring pending the arrival of the bus that will lead them to Indre.
Enzo is 9 years old, a cap and sneakers, a small suitcase on wheels and desires to be friends with everyone. With the guys from his city, Quincy-sous-Sénart, but also with the young people of Varennes-Jarcy, Boussy-Saint-Antoine and Epinay-sous-Sénart, the city “enemy”, that with which generations of Big brothers have been fighting for almost half a century since the construction of working-class neighborhoods. “We don’t talk about that too much, slide Enzo, it is better not, because good … the big ones, they do not mix too much …”
“Erase all these barriers”
Some hate each other and clash, sometimes until death. Without really knowing why. “As far as we can remember, the rivalries have always existed, without knowing the causes, we are all of the territory, this question of the municipal borders is part of our DNA”, recalls Mr. Allouch. In 2021, a 14-year-old child was stabbed in Boussy-Saint-Antoine, and another, even younger, seriously injured, during a brawl between two rival districts of Quincy and Epinay. The day before, another fight had caused the death of a 14-year-old girl, a few tens of kilometers away, in Saint-Chéron.
“With the activities all together and the intercommunal colo, the children of the different cities will know each other, when they will all arrive in college, they will recognize themselves, it is nice and very reassuring for us, the parents”, comments the mother d’Enzo, Linda, 33 (she does not wish to give her name). From the first “interco” meeting a few months ago, Erynn, 11, voluntary to play the intermediaries. Originally from Epinay-sous-Sénart, she moved to Boussy-Saint-Antoine two years ago. Thanks to inter -municipal activities, she found her old friends whom she hastened to present to the news. “She was delighted to do it, comments her mother, Yamina (she wishes to remain anonymous). To make them meet so small, it’s great is to give them a chance not to fight once in college.”
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