He has already distilled the first advertisements in the regional daily La Provence. For Act II of “Marseille on a grand scale”, Emmanuel Macron returns to Marseille for three days, from Monday to Wednesday. Second largest city in France, Marseille is also one of the poorest, with its 40,000 unsanitary housing units, its poor northern districts and its endemic drug trafficking.

By launching the “Marseille en grand” plan in September 2021, the Head of State had already put 5 billion euros on the table to strengthen the police force, renovate schools, urban space and a transport network. in common suffering from “colossal backwardness”. On this last part, Emmanuel Macron announced to La Provence the doubling of the subsidy to the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis, from 256 to 500 million euros.

“In particular by increasing the contribution for projects in the northern districts”, he specifies. Overall, “all of this must go even faster”, he assured the local newspaper on Sunday: “You have to think very big”, he insisted, accusing in passing local elected officials, without citing them by name, to “procrastinate”.

After a long streak devoted to reindustrialization and new technologies, Emmanuel Macron is thus continuing his political and media marathon to relaunch his five-year term after the pension crisis.

Arrival of a CRS company

As in 2021, where he had already stayed three days – a record in the presidential agenda – the Head of State, accompanied in particular by the Minister of the Interior, the Keeper of the Seals, the Minister of Education or even his colleagues in culture and health, will make a series of visits – to the headquarters of the judicial police, to a primary school being renovated, to the construction site of the Baumettes 3 prison, to the Laveran army hospital – and exchanges with the inhabitants.

During a sequence devoted to the port, the president will undoubtedly develop his idea of ????developing a “big port” linking Marseille to Lyon, along the Rhone valley, which would allow the connection with Germany for the transport of goods and energies.

Drug trafficking, which plagues many neighborhoods, also remains at the heart of the issues. The war for control of these points of sale has already claimed twenty-three lives since the start of the year. On this issue, the Head of State announced to the daily La Provence on Sunday that the payment of fixed fines for drug use may soon be “immediate, by credit card or in cash”.

This would improve the recovery rate, by only 35%, an “unacceptable” level. The president said he asked the Minister of the Interior “to prepare a decree for the end of the summer”. “We have started equipping agents with five thousand payment terminals,” he said.

Still on this aspect of “Marseille on a grand scale”, the Head of State announced to La Provence the arrival of one more CRS company in the fall, in addition to the three already deployed in the field and the three hundred new police officers appointed in the city.

Highly anticipated on housing

Will he raise the subject of the reform of the judicial police (PJ) during his meetings? Wanted by Gérald Darmanin, this reform has been the subject of strong criticism from magistrates, lawyers and PJ investigators, particularly in Marseille, who believe that it will weaken the capacity to fight against networks at the highest level.

The president will also be eagerly awaited on housing, another black spot of the city, with its large dilapidated buildings and its old run-down neighborhoods. As he announces in La Provence, he will unveil during his visit a plan on degraded private condominiums. If the Elysée is pleased with the first results of the “Marseille en grand” plan, the change is still not very visible to the eyes of the inhabitants.

Mayor Benoît Payan, at the head of a union of the left and ecologist, and the LR president of the metropolis, Martine Vassal, welcome for their part the commitment of the president, but also demand even more means in the face of the challenges to raise.

Apart from possible “casserolades”, the Head of State will also be welcomed by Marseille residents dissatisfied with his policy, in particular with the demonstration of the clerks at 12:30 p.m. at the courthouse or this call for a rally in front of the prefecture at 5 p.m. from the CGT 13.