The sky is black. The storm roars in the distance. Stanislas once again donned the gold and blue flag. Behind his back, in the gilded salons of the town hall, a ceremony is taking place in honor of the families of Ukrainian refugees who have been welcomed in the Metropolis: the first arrived just a year ago, on the 19 March 2022. Nancy pulled out all the stops for this sinister first anniversary of Russian aggression in Ukraine.
Children play carefree while the adults, gathered in the large living room, listen with a serious air to the assistant for international relations, Antoine Le Solleuz, addressing a large and attentive crowd.
“If the war has not stopped since the Russian aggression, life has continued”, he says before recalling how Nancy, twinned with Lublin, in Poland, got involved from the first moments. In the twin city of Nancy, 50,000 people were able to find refuge there. The department of Meurthe-et-Moselle hosts nearly 1,700 Ukrainian refugees, including 384 in Metropolitan France. Some of them live in staff accommodation in colleges and schools in Nancy, which were unoccupied.
In the front row, elected officials, secretary general of the prefecture, representatives of State services, Civil Protection, Rotary… All those who have invested in welcoming refugees were gathered this Sunday at the town hall for a “moment of sharing” and to reaffirm Nancy’s commitment to solidarity with Ukraine and make it a lasting one.
A third has a job
“We don’t just welcome them, we actually support them. 60% of them live in independent accommodation,” says Julien Le Goff. The secretary general of the prefecture estimates that half of them are “on the right track of integration and a third has a job”. These integration rates would be among the highest in France. On the program: concerts and a videoconference with Lublin.
“This red flower the kalina, why does she lower her head? Ukraine was splendid, why this storm? It will still flower the kalina for eternity and in all its splendor Ukraine will rise again”: all the participants were treated to this translation of an extract from a Ukrainian song announcing a concert in Poirel, on April 16th. Place Stan, the sky remains low in this month of March.
