He was eager to “find Marseilles again”. Several times, Emmanuel Macron had believed the time had come to repeat the coup of September 2021: offer three days to his city of hearts, take the time to discuss with the inhabitants of a city in the northern districts, soak up local anger to get into “fight” mode. The long chapter of pension reform had forced him into near silence.
This Monday evening, in a gymnasium in Busserine, a renovated city of 2,800 inhabitants where violence and drug traffickers still reign, he resumed his accents of two years ago, when he had soaked in the bubbling bath of the quoted Bassens. As well as those of the great national debate, where, after the Yellow Vests crisis, he entered an arena to respond to concerns.
Next door, Clément Beaune, his colleague Minister of Transport, laughs at “this sweet madness, it’s incredible here”. To those who ask him to jump the barrier, the president tells them “come on!” “, driving the close protection services crazy. A “it’s Marseille, baby” already declined a little earlier in another city, at Campanules, where the President of the Republic had met six mothers who had lost one of their own and had fought, in January, to chasing the dealers. It’s that behind the disorderly joy, the words are serious, painful.
There, he is in the hard and he likes it, even if his hair suffers little in the heat. Arriving at La Busserine, after a progress report on the work, he had held a few asides with young people who were looking for accommodation, who for guarantees for a creperie project or a patent to file.
“We’re tired of burying our children, we’re tired,” says another. Last doctor of the city, Joseph Bechara, confides to us, him, “the hell linked to dealers and people in an irregular situation who have neither God nor master. We stick together because we stick together. But it’s been five years since I’ve been ready to give away my clientele and I haven’t found anyone. »
In the middle of the room, Emmanuel Macron takes notes. “You came, that’s good, but it’s all nice, clean. It’s not usually like that. Nobody really takes care of us,” a young woman says to applause. “What comes out of there is a fed up,” the president tries to answer, while the recriminations follow one another. Difficult to be heard in the confusion that is settling. Where several people intertwine their anger. “You can’t say nothing is done,” he tries, asking to “listen to yourself calmly.”
With simple words, shirt sleeves rolled up, he still manages to explain the measures taken and the “unprecedented means put in Marseille. We are not going to give up anything, nothing. Being indignant is not my job. I am there in front of you, you have never seen a president do that, be in Marseilles with you for two times three days. But the anger I share must be converted into projects. Otherwise, it’s not enough,” he raises his voice.
Incidentally, while the gymnasium resounds less loudly, the tenant of the Élysée announces a plan to “simplify community life” in the neighborhoods. Proposes to “set up a residents’ participation fund for citizen initiatives”, as well as to welcome children “from two years old in school”. He indicates that he wants to generalize the care of college students from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. by internal replacements, in priority education districts.
And as he manages to keep the microphone without being challenged too much, soothing the room with a few technical terms and a hellish rhythm, he goes on to the habitat. “We are committed here as in no other city in France”, he assures, “having a thought for the victims of 2018”, rue d’Aubagne. The evening drags on, bouncing back to entrepreneurship and the initiatives of young start-up creators. But angry associations are watching. They will find him on Tuesday during a visit to a school, then to a military hospital and, on Wednesday, to a degraded condominium. An obstacle course without filter as Emmanuel Macron likes them.