Cities against campaigns: too simplistic opposition

In total, 19.5 million people live in the 22 French metropolises, or almost 30 % of the population. Does this concentration of jobs, wealth and executives in major cities cause a territorial fracture? The results of the 2024 legislative elections attest to divergent electoral aspirations between cities and countryside.

While the list of the national rally came first in 93 % of the municipalities, the new Popular Front dominated in densely populated metropolises. “There are not three blocks but two, the metropolises against peripheral France,” says Christophe Guilluy, geographer, author of Metropolia and Peripheria (Ed. Flammarion).

This electoral geography is explained in particular by the feeling of “downgrading” felt in rurality. “The 2008 economic crisis accelerated our deindustrialisation which was already well underway,” says Laurent Chalard, geographer member of the European Center for International Affairs Circle. The traditional industries (metallurgy, manufacture, textiles) or of the Fordist type (automotive), historically anchored in medium -sized cities, are those that have suffered the most. »Between 2009 and 2013, the firm Trendeo had counted nearly 900 closings of factories employing more than ten employees. A pivotal period that still segments society a decade later.

Giant clay feet

But beware of the caricatured opposition between major cities, “winners of globalization”, and “abandoned” rural areas. “First, the majority of poverty is found in metropolitan areas (the poverty rate is greater than 14.4 %2 of national average, editor’s note), Observes Marie-Christine JAILLET, research director at CNRS. Then, the cities provide a rich offer of services, training and care accessible to rural people. »»

Ultimately, is these metropolises concentrating services and inhabitants in the same very artificial space sustainable? “The thought of many elected officials is based on economic construction and attractiveness. It is totally anachronistic, judge Guillaume Faburel, professor of urban studies at the Lumière-Lyon University (1). This very energy -consuming model is that of a giant with clay feet: the first 100 cities in France have three days of food autonomy. What does these vulnerabilities be known, the urban exodus towards the countryside does not seem for tomorrow.