Unashamed of controversy and a favorite target of his opponents and some in the media since his election last March as head of the Saint-Denis-Pierfitte (Seine-Saint-Denis) party, Bally Bagayoko has quickly established himself on the national political scene. To better understand his management style, Dispatch attended the Dionysian City Council this week. Hot and sometimes electric.
“Bally Bagayoko, be present!”… The Councilor touches his chest with his right hand as a sign that he is talking about him. He then lists the names of other elected officials… It’s 7:00 p.m. The June meeting of the Saint-Denis municipal council has just opened. The heat outside is stifling, and inside several fans are doing their best to reduce the temperature. There is no air conditioning here. LFI does not support this. But Bally Bagayoko, elected in March against Socialist mayor Mathieu Hanotin, wants to make his municipality a model of the policies advocated by La France insoumise.
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Out of curiosity, Dispatch went to watch the mayor of Ile-de-France’s second largest city organize a debate in his own municipal council. It must be said that there was a lot of controversy surrounding him, whether he was a victim or an initiator. Barely selected, racist attacks abound. Here on CNews he is described as a descendant of a “primitive tribe.” But on the other hand, he decided to remove the portrait of Emmanuel Macron from his town hall, which earned him a pass in arms to the prefect of Seine-Saint-Denis, and caused a scandalous reaction when he declared about the national anthem: “Whistling the La Marseillaise, when France disgraces itself with its actions at the international level, is the right to a popular response.” “This is unworthy of an elected representative of the Republic,” said, for example, Benjamin Haddad, Minister Delegate for European Affairs. Is this criticism a form of racism, as argued by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who believes that Bally Bagayoko is being humiliated because he represents the “new France”, which many do not want?
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In the introduction, the councilor, celebrating his centenary as head of the municipality, lists the measures taken as part of the plan to combat the heat to help the elderly, the homeless and children… Former Socialist mayor Mathieu Hanotin intervenes to emphasize that he considers it shameful that the city did not allow swimming in the canal, as is the case in Paris. The mayor replies that the price is too high. Mathieu Anotin wants to speak again, but Bally Bagayoko refuses him, saying in an authoritarian tone: “We are now on the agenda!”
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There are a few curious people in the public, but there are also municipal majority supporters who stand up whenever a Socialist elected official speaks. This is exactly the case when Mathieu Hanotin tries to raise the issue of the meeting organized by Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Saint-Denis a month earlier. “I was quite shocked to see the images of the seditious appropriation of the Town Hall (which is) the home of the people, of all the people,” he says, before asking what the €3,467 paid by LFI to the Town Hall for the event equates to. Bally Bagayoko responds in a challenging tone: “Were you shocked? Actually 26,000 people, that’s shocking! Well, do the same.” He promises to give a written answer.
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The rest of the meeting will be more calm. All the projects were voted unanimously: providing a bicycle for all third-year students, free subway travel for the youngest, and even awarding the title of honorary citizen to Mumia Abu Jamal, a Black Panther activist imprisoned in the United States after being convicted of murdering a police officer.
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But as the temperature in the room continues to rise, a new battle begins, this time with a chosen environmentalist. Kader Chibane asks the mayor: “Why after three months have you still not met with Valerie Pecresse (president of the regional council of Ile-de-France, editor’s note)? The mayor of Saint-Denis cannot meet only with political friends. To discuss transportation, I don’t see how we can do without her.” The city mayor’s sharp response: “I didn’t realize that Mr. Chibane was the representative of Valerie Pecresse! Bravo! Bravo! But I can’t get an invitation from anyone.” However, he clarifies that on the same day he spoke with the right-wing president of the Greater Paris metropolis, Patrick Ollier.
The evening will move from one tension to another, in a conflictual atmosphere reminiscent of the clashes taking place in the National Assembly.