Session of January 20, 2025 – Anne Cerval and Martine Drozdz

Urban development projects for the 2024 Olympic Games have met with fierce resistance, particularly in Saint-Denis and Aubervilliers, north of Paris. But beyond the Olympics, a huge urban renewal project is taking shape with the Grand Paris project, due to be completed by 2030. In working-class suburbs, many residents are being evicted, expropriated from their homes, rehoused in other social housing, and forced to make way for the 68 future stations of the new Grand Paris Express transport network. Around each of these stations, major urban projects plan to demolish thousands of social housing units, which will be rebuilt further away and at a higher cost, while real estate prices in the private sector are rising rapidly. Completely out of step with the needs of the working classes, who have been becoming poorer for decades, the Greater Paris Metropolis is being built to maintain its position in international competition, by making urban land profitable and seeking to attract new investors. Based on field research conducted around the future stations in eight municipalities in the inner suburbs, this book tells the story as seen by the losers of this operation.