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Stéphane Troussel, President of the Seine-Saint-Denis department (Socialist Party), explains that his role is above all to draw the French government’s attention to the area’s situation and ensure that it catches up in providing sufficient public services there. These difficulties are partly due to the role played by Seine-Saint-Denis in receiving migrants. Despite all the demagogic rhetoric about controlling immigration, this role will continue, and we must organize it by sharing the burden with the other departments in the Île-de-France region. He argues for a reform of the metropolis of Paris, extended to the size of the region and organized on the basis of the eight departments. He explains the high abstention rate (50-70% in many working-class suburban municipalities) both by the rhetoric of elected officials, who hide behind formalities and turn their backs on politics, and by the characteristics of the region (high proportion of young people and people with a migrant background).