Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 74, electrified the streets on Sunday at the launch of his campaign. It was in Saint-Denis, land of kings, a Paris suburb turned epicenter of immigration and multiculturalism. But also where he gets the narrative material that weaves the idea of the New France that the leader of the far-left party La France Insoumise (LFI, or France Unbowed) has put forward to win over the suburbs in the presidential election of spring 2027. And, incidentally, to capture the roughly 400,000 votes that were missing last time to reach the runoff.

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Street vendors and market stalls begin to pack up by mid-afternoon on Saturday. In the narrow streets there is the smell of roast lamb and on the terraces locals from the neighborhood, retired laborers, and third-generation immigrants mix with groups of young people with a hipster look wearing expensive clothes and drinking IPA beers. Saint-Ouen marks the first boundary between that Haussmannian Paris, already unaffordable for many family budgets, and its famous banlieue, until recently known for youth unrest, episodes of jihadist terrorism, and large concrete apartment blocks. But it is also the product of investment from the Olympic Games, a symbol of the gentrification of the Paris periphery and the home of the city’s oldest and most charismatic soccer club: Red Star.

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