NZZ Interview: French Banlieues and the Sense That the State Has Collapsed

In an interview published by the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, the argument is made that additional funding for France's banlieues cannot resolve the underlying problem. Residents of the country's run-down suburbs, the text states, are convinced they are being shortchanged, a conviction the political left has reinforced for decades. Every attempt to integrate them has failed so far, according to the interview. The financial crisis is described as forcing the French state to try new recipes, a development the interview frames as good news. The headline captures the prevailing sentiment attributed to the suburbs: that the state has collapsed. The piece appears in the NZZ's Feuilleton section and is presented as an interview rather than a reported feature.