The controversial fast food restaurant of the Master Poulet chain in Saint-Ouen near Paris.Image: IMAGO / ABACAPRESS
The mayor of Saint-Ouen wants to kick a fast food restaurant out of his municipality. Behind this lies a hard-fought cultural and class struggle.
May 7, 2026, 5:03 p.mMay 7, 2026, 5:03 p.m
The young woman with the headscarf doesn’t understand the excitement: “If a rich person eats chicken, no one says anything. But now that the boys finally have an affordable snack bar, the mayor wants to throw them out of town by any means necessary.”
Master Poulet is the new hot word here in the municipality of Saint-Ouen. The chain surfs the current wave of chicken takeaways with cheap food. In mid-April it opened a branch in the suburb north of Paris.
American fast food is less annoying
However, the left-wing mayor Karim Bouamrame accuses the owners of not having requested the necessary permits. Many residents also complained about the smells from the chicken grill, which was open late into the night.
A young customer wearing a gray hoodie defends Master Poulet: “The mayor wants to give priority to well-off people and attract profitable companies. They don’t want low earners and fast food stalls, they want real restaurants and brasseries.”
But that only partially explains the mayor’s campaign against Master Poulet. After all, McDonald’s and Burger King are also represented in Saint-Ouen – but nobody here is bothered by American fast food. What bothers many here: Master Poulet only sells halal meat that is slaughtered according to the Islamic ritual. This applies to most of the brands that have been springing up like mushrooms in France for over a year, with names like Chicken Street, Tasty Crousty or Burger Addict. With their low prices, especially in the suburbs of Paris or Lyon, they are aimed at a young, student, precarious, often Maghreb-African, i.e. Muslim, audience.
Brotherly strife of the French left
However, the halal trend is hardly ever mentioned in the debate about Master Poulet. Rather, the left’s old brotherly feud is causing red heads in Saint-Ouen. Saint-Ouen is a prime example of urban gentrification. Many Parisian families can no longer afford the high rents and are moving beyond the ring road around the capital to Saint-Ouen. In Saint-Ouen, these representatives of the bourgeois middle class come face-to-face with the traditional banlieue population. However, these workers and immigrants of Maghreb-African descent come from a different social class.
This was made very clear in the recent municipal elections in March. Saint-Ouen confirmed the liberal and enterprising Social Democrat Bouamrame in office. The neighboring community of Saint-Denis On the other hand, he chose the left-wing radical Bally Bagayokowhose “Indomitable” party is emphatically proletarian and Islam-friendly.
And Bagayoko didn’t miss the opportunity, cheerfully joining in the quarrel about Master Poulet. One evening he drove to Saint-Ouen and bought a sack full of chicken legs from the stall. As he said, he expressed his solidarity with the chicken chain. On the other hand, he laughed and gave the finger to his counterpart Bouamrame, the alleged traitor to the left-wing cause. In the very French dispute with the mayor of Saint-Ouen, it is one to zero for Master Poulet. (aargauerzeitung.ch)