Why these French MPs step out for walks with 'forgotten people'

Thirty MPs from left-leaning parties have taken part in a new initiative to engage with marginalised communities in France via 30-minute walks.

Using the slogan #ChaquePasCompte, the scheme was launched in July 2023 by Les Oubliés de la République, a group of organisations committed to raising awareness about disenfranchised people, including children placed in social care, the homeless and victims of prostitution.

They are called les oubliés (the forgotten) to highlight the lack of attention shown by public institutions, politicians and the media. By walking with MPs, representatives from these communities can provide a better understanding of the issues faced by an estimated half a million people.

Among high-profile MPs to take part are Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the Socialist Party, and the outspoken Sandrine Rousseau (profiled in the October/November edition of The Connexion), who represents Europe Ecology – The Greens. 

Both are part of the left-wing alliance of the Nouveau Front Populaire.

'It feels sincere'

The reactions to date have been largely positive.

“It felt like he was listening to me and was sincere,” Maxime Groult, a 22-year-old who has spent all but two years of his life in care, said of Greens MP Charles Fournier.

Mr Groult is now president of an association campaigning on child welfare issues and spoke to the MP during two riverside walks in Tours (Indre-et-Loire).

The format works well, he said: “It sort of abolishes any hierarchical relationship which allows trust to be established more easily.”

The walks have also been praised by Anniela Lamnaouar, a 23-year-old student at Sciences Po Paris, who spoke to Olivier Faure about her 18 years in child protection services.

“Walking enabled us to have a good discussion. It allowed me to explain some of the issues around child protection in great detail,” she said.

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Talks lead to action

Ms Lamnaouar highlighted how problems can continue even after young people leave care, giving the example of her own difficulties securing a student loan without having parents as a guarantor.

She noticed that several weeks after her walk, the Socialist party used her as a case study in a press release to draw attention to some of these issues.

“It may seem trivial, but I saw the direct effects of that discussion,” she said.

The Socialist party referred to her difficulties as it launched a parliamentary inquiry into Ase (aide sociale à l'enfance, a state-run child welfare service) in March 2024 following the suicide of a 15-year-old girl after her placement in an Ase facility.

“All the alarm bells are ringing,” MPs said in a joint statement.

Les Oubliés de la République was founded in 2022 by The Good Lobby, a non-profit organisation based in Brussels.

It has also organised a roundtable discussion with former French president François Hollande and published an op-ed in Le Monde newspaper last summer entitled: ‘To stamp out misery, let those who suffer the most from it speak.’

“We hope to restore the idea that people most affected by these issues have experiential knowledge, which is essential to the work of practitioners and academics,” Gaëtan de Royer, The Good Lobby’s spokesperson, told The Connexion.

“Our belief is that vulnerability is as much a source of influence as it is of despair. To see it only as the latter is to fall into the trap of state handouts, which are not always effective,” he added.