Les Jardins de l'Empereur

Les Jardins de l'Empereur (literally, "The Emperor's Gardens") is a neighbourhood of Ajaccio, Corsica, France. The neighbourhood has been described as a banlieue^[1] and is classed as a sensitive urban zone (ZUS).^[2] The majority of its inhabitants are foreign, of which North Africans predominate.^[1] The neighbourhood made national and international headlines due to violent unrest in December 2015,^[3][4] after which programmes were initiated to improve it.^[1]

View of the port of Ajaccio. The modern buildings in the background are Les Jardins de l'Empereur.

Profile

According to the French bureau of statistics INSEE, the neighbourhood had a 10.6% unemployment rate in 2006 as compared to 9.8% for the city as a whole. The median household income was €13,009, the lowest of the four vulnerable neighbourhoods profiled, and nearly half as much as the €24,567 average for the city. In 2006, 10.7% of the population qualified for subsidised healthcare (CMU-C) the second highest rate of the four profiled neighbourhoods and compared to the 8.3% average.^[5]

In 2018, the neighbourhood had a population of 2,200, including Corsicans, North Africans and Portuguese people.^[6] In December 2020, Les Echos profiled the neighbourhood as having 1,700 residents in 480 households, of which the majority were homeowners and also of foreign nationality.^[2] The principal buildings are named after members of the local House of Bonaparte.^[1]

Unrest and subsequent programmes

The neighbourhood made national and international headlines on 24 December 2015 when police and firefighters were attacked when responding to a call, by hooded men who said "Corses de merde, vous n'êtes pas chez vous!" (Corsican shits, you are not in your land!). In response, hundreds of Corsicans marched on the neighbourhood and other areas of high Arab population, calling for Arabs to leave the city and vandalising sites including a Muslim prayer room.^[7]

In November 2015, the neighbourhood was included in a nationwide programme to improve disadvantaged areas with renovation and infrastructure, and the following January a Citizens' Council was established.^[1] In April 2018, the Minister of Territorial Development, Jacques Mézard, visited the neighbourhood.^[8] While households had been sold cheaply to escape the neighbourhood following the 2015 unrest, by the fifth anniversary of the violence, a three-room apartment had nearly doubled in value from €80,000 to €150,000.^[1]

References

1. Marcelin, Caroline (27 December 2020). "Ajaccio : cinq ans après, les Jardins de l'Empereur ont tourné la page" [Ajaccio: five years later, Les Jardins de l'Empereur has turned the page]. Corse-Matin (in French). Retrieved 17 August 2021.
2. "Comment Ajaccio s'est enflammée après la nuit du réveillon de Noël" [How Ajaccio was inflamed after the night of Christmas Eve]. Les Echos (in French). 28 December 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
3. "Corsica march: Hundreds defy protest ban after Muslim prayer hall attack". BBC News. 28 December 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
4. "Hundreds protest in Corsica despite official ban". Deutsche Welle. 27 December 2015. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
5. "Les populations vulnerables en Corse" [Vulnerable populations in Corsica] (PDF) (in French). INSEE. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
6. Rossi, Patrick; Castel, Olivier (12 June 2018). "Ajaccio : comment vit-on aux jardins de l'empereur ?" [Ajaccio: how do people live in Les Jardins de l'Empereur] (in French). France Bleu. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
7. "Ajaccio : il y a un an, l'affaire des Jardins de l'Empereur" [Ajaccio: one year on, the Jardins de l'Empereur affair] (in French). France 3. 23 December 2016. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
8. "Jacques Mézard : « Mon but n'est pas de dire aux collectivités faites ceci ou faites cela »" [Jacques Mézard: "My goal is not to say do this or do that to the collectivities"] (in French). France 3. 14 April 2018. Retrieved 17 August 2021.