From apathy to fighting the power: A new French revolution?

In an increasingly polarised France, residents of a heavily Muslim suburb of Paris have decided to start their own political party. Elisabeth Zerofsky investigates.

On February 2, around 4.45pm, just as the day began to darken, police officers approached four young men outside a recording studio in the Rose des Vents, an agglomeration of chalky cités, or public-housing projects, that covers a remote expanse of the north-east Paris suburb Aulnay-sous-Bois.

The police asked to see one man’s identity papers. Within minutes, another was on his stomach. The officers put handcuffs on the 21-year-old, whose family, of Congolese origin, lived nearby. When they arrived at the station, staff members noticed that he was in a lot of pain.