Marseille (AFP)
For his last city council, Jean-Claude Gaudin, mayor LR of Marseille for 25 years, was subjected on Monday to critics of opponents accusing him of dilapidated schools and ruined buildings but considered "to have advanced" the second city of France.
"The time clock strikes today for me, the hour of withdrawal," said Mr. Gaudin, 80, who is not running for municipal elections in March. "It is not without emotion that I have just chaired my 198th municipal council," he launched, his voice tottering, applauded by all the elected officials present, standing.
As usual, Mr. Gaudin had arrived among the first in the hemicycle close to the Old Port, in a black suit and purple tie.
He was greeted by a concert of saucepans from around fifty activists from the Marseille Schools Collective, expressing their anger at the "dilapidated" school buildings. Among them, parents of pupils who have been educated in prefabricated for 17 years. Activists from the November 5 collective came to denounce the outrageous housing in the Mediterranean city.
At the end of the municipal council, the president of the socialist opposition, Benoît Payan, paid tribute to "one of the last monuments of French political life".
- Gaudin has "inherited nothing" -
"You are one of those who inherited nothing, nothing was written for the son of a mason," added Payan.
Coming from a modest family in the village district of Mazargues, south of the city, Mr. Gaudin began his political career at 25 years old, becoming the youngest member of the municipal councilors of Marseille, then led by the socialist Gaston Defferre.
An entry to the municipal council which he always evokes as "the happiest day of [s] a lifetime", he who then became a deputy, president of the Regional Council, vice-president of the Senate and minister, under the banner of the right.
For his last council, the mayor of Marseille opened the session with one of the most disputed subjects of his term, the state of the schools, regularly denounced by teachers, parents and even by the regional chamber of accounts.
While he had promised to deliver Monday the audit ordered by his services to two private consulting firms, he was content to comment on a "summary" which concludes to an "average" state of educational establishments.
Several elected representatives of opposition criticized this "smoking", like Sandrine D'Angio (RN): "Why not have transmitted to us the conclusions of this report? Undoubtedly to leave the head held high this hemicycle!".
Mr. Gaudin admitted half-heartedly: "We may have lost a little time, I grant you, in the modernization of schools".
- "Go see in Paris!" -
During the deliberations, the opposition continued to send Mr. Gaudin to his balance sheet, criticizing him in particular for the polluted air and the lack of environmental vision.
"So go for a walk in Paris, you'll see if it's better!" Defended the mayor, still quick to castigate the capital.
Jean-Claude Gaudin was made more serious by evoking Henri Tasso, the mayor who experienced the deadly fire at the Galeries Lafayette, on the Canebière, in 1938. "I often think of him," he confessed. "He had 73 dead, I would have known eight dead, those in the rue d'Aubagne".
"It is my obsession and I tell myself that it is not always the responsibility of the mayor", he slipped in reference to the deadly collapse of two dilapidated buildings in the heart of Marseille in November 2018.
"Together, we have made Marseille move forward," concluded the city councilor, proud to have seen unemployment drop in his city from "almost 22%" when he arrived to 11% today.
"This passion for Marseilles and the Marseillais, ladies and gentlemen maintain it," he launched as a message to the candidates in the running.
In her camp, Martine Vassal obtained the LR nomination but faces dissident Bruno Gilles. On the left, a union list is led by an ecologist Michèle Rubirola. Europe Ecologie les Verts also presents its list led by Sébastien Barles. Stéphane Ravier competes for the RN and the former rector of the Aix-Marseille University for La République en Marche.
© 2020 AFP