Eight years later, the ” plan “ Emmanuel Macron for Marseille could well contain the same promises as those made under the patronage of François Hollande. On November 8, 2013, the then Prime Minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, put more than 3 billion euros on the table for “Ensure the return of the Republic” in the Phocaean city.
→ ANALYSIS. In Marseille, President Macron sets up his balance sheet and his project
On the menu, already: public services everywhere, transport, urban renewal, education and, more marginal, security. Without knowing yet the details or the costing of the proposals that will be rolled out by Emmanuel Macron, of the 1er on September 3, these themes will largely fill the program outlined by the Head of State’s entourage.
Broken promises on transport
For eight years, marked by changes at the Elysee Palace as well as at Marseille town hall, certain commitments have been kept. Or are in the process of being. As agreed, the city has several of the country’s 450 priority neighborhoods benefiting from the New National Urban Renewal Program (NPRU), launched in 2014. Deserted by public transport and plagued by drug trafficking, Castellane was selected. But the city also symbolizes the abandonment, or the permanent postponement, of several major announcements of 2013.
The extension of the metro to the northern district has so far only resulted in the inauguration of a small additional station on line 2, seven kilometers below the target. Its extension to the east is still only at the planning stage. Another great promise of Jean-Marc Ayrault, the underground station of Saint-Charles has not passed the public investigation phase, for an opening scheduled for 2035.
Main component of the envelope granted by the former prime minister, transport should once again mobilize a not insignificant part of the credits provided by Emmanuel Macron.
“Marseille combines the factors of social precariousness”
A few days after a new series of settling of scores, security will also be invited to the president’s visit to Marseille. In February, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin had already guaranteed the arrival of 300 additional police officers over three years, including 100 before the end of this year. The latest in a long series of extensions in this area, marked under this same mandate by 60 new daily security police officers (PSQ) in 2018.
→ EDITORIAL Marseille tragedy
If local elected officials never fail to insist on Marseille’s under-endowments in comparison with other municipalities, the city has therefore already been the subject of multiple promises from the executive in recent years..
“Its position as the second largest population center in the country means that the State cannot ignore it, but that does not explain everything, observes sociologist Dominique Duprez. Marseille combines the factors of social insecurity: inhabitants largely from waves of very poor immigration, a historic place in drug trafficking, and strong political and union patronage. All this requires Paris and the executive to do more than it should. “
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