Gypsies against town hall: permanent tension | M6 | Enquête Exclusive

They say there are some 50,000 in France. Gypsies, Tzigans, Roma: they are the travelers. They have always suffered from a bad reputation. A bunch of thieves”, according to their detractors. So when they arrive in a town with their caravans, they are not welcome and often they have nowhere to stay. And yet the law requires communes of more than 5,000 residents to make host sites available to them. Faced with the suspicion of locals, some mayors prefer not to respect the law. So the traveler folk have no other choice but to park themselves, without permission, on waste ground, a parking lot or private property. Such intrusions are regarded as aggression, provoking conflict, clashes and fights. In some communes they have even dug trenches to keep them back. In Pérols, near Montpellier, 80 caravans invaded the parking lots of a shopping center without notice right in the middle of the sales. Their presence drove customers away and retailers saw their turnover collapse. In their exasperation, the latter are prepared to go to any lengths to drive out their new, unwanted neighbors. In the Essonne, a Paris region, the dozen or so caravans belonging to Rolando and his family took refuge around an abandoned factory. To feed his family, the head of the clan does the best that he can: he rummages through the trashcans of nearby supermarkets. Armed with an eviction order, the gendarmes are preparing to step in. Gypsy, and proud of it, Henock Cortès was no longer able to bear being driven away like a plague victim. He decided to settle down and swapped his caravan for a tiny house where he lives with his family. However, this former hoodlum turned rapper has not abandoned the cause of the traveler folk. With his cheeky humor and impressive physique, Henock has declared war on the town halls who respect neither gypsies nor the law. An investigation into an uprooted community that is fighting back and using every strategy, legal or not, to preserve its traditional way of life.”