FRENCH KISSING UP TO MCDONALD’S
Restaurant keeps crime rate low, contributes a lot to neighbourhood
MCDONALD’S is the brand that the French love to hate. From the 1970s, it was accused of exporting mal bouffe (bad food) to the land of fine dining, introducing millions of French people to high-calorie American fast food.
It was also resisted as a symbol of United States economic and cultural imperialism, particularly by leftwingers, in a country that remains suspicious of globalisation — and more eager to defend its own language and culture.
Farmer and one-time presidential candidate Jose Bove built a political career through his opposition to McDonald’s, which saw him trash a restaurant in 1999.
And resistance to the golden arches continues — a mayor on the island of Oleron in western France has famously battled to keep the company out, and the brand is still a favourite target of anti-capitalist protesters.
But in a turn of events that would have local food purists choking, campaigners including local lawmakers have mobilised to save, not shut, a restaurant in one of the poorest suburbs of the southern city here.
“From the outside it might seem to be just another restaurant,” local member of parliament and hard-left leader JeanLuc Melenchon said in a visit last month to the outlet, where he was cheered and applauded.
“But it’s the only place where there’s something going on in this area, where you can get something to drink or have a bite to eat with friends.”
The campaign to prevent the “McDo”, as it is known in France, from shutting is an unusual development for politicians.
But it has also served to highlight how the American fast-food chain has become a pillar of the local community, underscoring the lack of other facilities and economic opportunities in France’s deprived suburbs.
“There’s only this,” said a local, Farida Mameri, as she arrived with her children.
“This area without McDonald’s? There’d be nothing. When you meet someone, it’s here. There’s nothing else.”
The restaurant is located next to the partly-completed L2 trunk road in the tough northern suburb of Saint-Barthelemy, a multiethnic area home to a large Muslim population and some of the city’s poorest housing.
Residents lament how shops and businesses have moved out at the same time as drug-dealing has flourished, providing lucrative and dangerous opportunities for unemployed local men.
In May, amateur video went viral showing masked men armed with machine guns running through a housing estate in nearby Busserine, where police are often wary to enter.
Since opening in 1992, McDonald’s has helped to stop some of the criminality, employees and campaigners say.
“McDonald’s kind of got me out of this s**t, if you’ll excuse the term,” said employee Nordine Aklil, 27.
“I had come out of prison and McDonald’s offered me rehabilitation. It also allowed me to have stability in my life.”
Salim Grabsi, a member of a working-class collective in the area called SQPM, agreed that the business has played a “social role”.
“When kids no longer have any interest in school, or they no longer want to go to school, to avoid them landing in drugs and all that, their first job is often at McDonald’s.”
At stake is the threatened closure of the restaurant by its current operator, a franchiser called Jean-Pierre Brochiero who owns the restaurant in a 50-50 joint venture with McDonald’s France.
He claims the site is loss-making, which the employees contest, and wants to sell it to a Tunisiabased company, which will open an “Asian halal” food outlet.
The employees, who have been protesting for months, believe the takeover plan is a ruse to avoid paying them compensation, and they have gone to court to prevent the transaction.
“As badly paid as they are, as bad as working conditions are at McDonald’s, their whole life is built around this job,” a lawyer representing staff said after a court hearing recently.
“The whole life of the neighbourhood is built around this restaurant. McDonald’s needs to be aware and they need to come out of this honourably, too.”