The centre of Moissac is achingly attractive. The medieval buildings have the local pink coloured stone brick facades and the cobblestoned roads are car free.
Despite a population of just 15,000, the southern French town boasts two Unesco World Heritage sites; its vast abbey with its remarkably preserved cloister, and the famous Canal Du Midi linking the Mediterranean to the Atlantic, which runs through the town centre.
But the charming appearance is misleading – this is a town on edge ahead of the country’s presidential election. Its demographics have been transformed over the past 10 years.
The surprisingly large number of cars and vans with BG on their number plates give it away. In the past decade, 2,000 Bulgarians from the minority Rom population have settled here. They now make up more than 12% of the local population.
In a backlash against the newcomers, the local French population – known as Moissaga – voted overwhelmingly 18 months ago for a far-right mayor, Romain Lopez.
In his large office in the town hall, Mr Lopez tells me Bulgarians have been a “cultural shock” for local residents.
“Their lifestyle is different,” he says. “They spend a lot of time outside, drinking, and [stay out] late at night, often because they lived in crowded small apartments.”
Mr Lopez says that in some cases local residents have reported Bulgarians fly tipping, or failing to get their children to attend schools. “There was no physical violence or rise in thefts, but they perturb people who are from here,” he says, adding: “From now on it’s zero tolerance.”
Under the new mayor, the number of police officers has increased by a third, more security cameras have been installed and new rules enforced to ensure the town looks cleaner – including where and when rubbish bins can be placed outside, and a ban on laundry being left to dry on balconies.
I went out on patrol with local police chief David Ghibaudo and one of his colleagues, Laettia. He says the new “get tough” policy has led to four times as many fines being issued in the past year alone, and says the difference is noticeable.
“Moissac is a lot safer now. It used to have a bad reputation for crime. Maybe after getting heavy fines over and over people understand they have to respect the rules.”
But not everyone is convinced there was a problem with the Bulgarians to begin with, and believe the mayor and his team are using them as an excuse to pursue their right-wing security agenda.
Aurélie Raynal, a teacher, and local writer Yannick Bourg run an association called O’Amala, which means friendship in the Romani language.
Ms Raynal tells me her group of volunteers helps the Bulgarian community – especially as some have lost welfare benefits for not paying fines or letting their children skip school.
“We inform them of their rights and defend them after the election of a far right mayor who won on the back of anti-Bulgarian feelings here.
“We want to fight against discrimination and act as mediators between them and the local population because the mayor plays on the fear of that community.”
We drank in the street – that’s what it used to be like. But now we respect the rules and the police.
The countryside surrounding Moissac is one of the most important fruit growing regions in France, from melons to grapes, prunes and apricots. Picking the fruit is hard work and it is what brought the first wave of Bulgarians here.
One of them, Bochav, tells me nobody else wanted to do the job,
“Every day in summer, when it is 45 degrees, we are out there in the fields. If it’s raining, no problem, we are there. If our boss says work, we work. The French don’t want to do this work.”
After the first farm workers arrived, they brought along friends and families – including Dian Kanchev, now a spokesman for their community. His wife runs a Bulgarian food store while he works on construction sites. He admits there were mistakes at the beginning.
“When I arrived here I played music loudly, I didn’t care about the police or the neighbours,” Mr Kanchev says. But he insists things have since changed. “There are lot of Bulgarians who have integrated into society.”
Mayor Lopez points out that his father was a Spanish immigrant and assimilated with the local community, and says he expects new arrivals to “become like us” in order to be welcomed into the community. “That’s what assimilation and tolerance is really about. That’s our culture.”
What is clear is that the debate here in Moissac has significance nationally. Both immigration and security are already key issues in the French presidential election campaign.
Chris Bockman is author of Are You the Foie Gras Correspondent?: Another Slow News Day in South West France.
