In Nanterre's Nelson-Mandela Square, people still lay bouquets of flowers at the foot of the pole where Nahel Merzouk's car came to a permanent halt on June 27, 2023. In the Pablo-Picasso district, the asphalt still bears some of the scars from the wave of urban violence that followed the 17-year-old's death, after he was killed by a police officer during a traffic stop. A few pieces of graffiti paying tribute to him can still be seen on the neighborhood's walls, though they are gradually being replaced by slogans denouncing the situation in Gaza. "Here, nothing has changed," said a nurse in his 30s, speaking from the middle of the Aillaud apartment towers. "People have moved on because the priority is just trying to get by. In the end, we shot ourselves in the foot with these riots."
One year after Merzouk's death, Nanterre's residents and community groups echoed this bitter observation, which was reinforced by the French government's repressive response to the acts of urban violence. "There's a kind of resignation," said Mamadou Diallo, director of the Zy'Va association, which supports young people in the Petit-Nanterre district. "For those closest to Nahel, it's a trauma that will never pass. For others, it's an unfortunate event that will go down in the pantheon of unjust murders, a gross injustice that we're going to keep carrying around like this."
Despite everything, the atmosphere in the area has calmed down. Neither the investigative reconstruction of the events nor, in November 2023, the release of the police officer who shot Merzouk from detention, were followed by unrest. For some, however, all it would take is another spark to rekindle the embers. "When you look young people in the eye, you can see they're not well. Deep down, they still have this feeling of injustice," said Quinta (who requested anonymity), 61 years old, a care assistant who has lived in the neighborhood for 30 years. Several youth workers have regretted that little has been done over the past year to improve relations between the police and the population.
Nevertheless, Fatiha Abdouni wants to keep "hope" and highlight "a dynamic" in the neighborhood. Since September 2023, her association, La Voix des Femmes de Pablo ("The Voice of the Women of Pablo"), which brings together many women who live in Nanterre, has been working on "45 proposals to improve life in the local neighborhoods in terms of health, housing, employment and education," explained the group's founder. Since then, they have met with Nanterre's new mayor, Raphaël Adam (left-wing independent), a senator for Nanterre's department Roger Karoutchi (Les Républicains, right), former local Greens MP Sabrina Sebaihi, and are expecting to have talks with the department's prefect, Laurent Hottiaux.
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