Marseille (AFP)

Unknown before the campaign and almost inexperienced in politics, she turned Marseille to the left: doctor in working-class neighborhoods, Michèle Rubirola, 63, has intensified the fighting, from ecology to access to housing in a city marked by strong inequalities.

"I did not get up one morning saying to myself + I want to be mayor of Marseille +", confided during the campaign the elected environmentalist with eyes surrounded by kohl, designated after many procrastinations at the top of the list of the Marseilles Spring.

This union list of the left, including in particular the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, the Insubmissives then the ecologists of Europe ecology-the Greens in the second round, succeeded the tour de force to end a quarter of a century of reign of the right in the second city of France.

But the task was hard, between an extended campaign and a victory in votes, in a second round marked by record abstention; in trompe-l'oeil, which required hours and hours of negotiations until the very last moment to snatch the indispensable support of the ex-PS senator Samia Ghali from the municipal council

On the whole of the Mediterranean city, where the poll takes place by sector, Michèle Rubirola, qualified as candidate of "the ultra-left" by her rival of the Republicans Martine Vassal, had however largely preceded the "runner-up" of the outgoing Jean -Claude Gaudin, with 38.3% of the votes cast, against 30.8%.

Nothing was at stake for the discreet and uncomfortable oral candidate when the campaign started. Before the second round, she had to campaign during her days off and RTT, continuing her profession as a doctor in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis.

Granddaughter of Neapolitan and Spanish immigrants, this Marseillaise who grew up and still lives in a neighborhood where social classes mix, at Le Rouet, joined in the 1970s the battles of the alterglobalist and ecological movements.

Feminist, anti-militarist, she joined the Larzac plateau and fought for the liberalization of abortion and contraception, manifested at the Creys-Malville nuclear site and joined the Greens in 2002.

- Basketball player accomplished -

"The social and environmental struggle" has always been my commitment, explains to AFP the one who until today was responsible for a therapeutic education program for chronically ill people, most of whom are in a situation of social vulnerability, in the center prevention of the primary health insurance fund in impoverished areas north of Marseille.

Locally, the departmental councilor elected since 2015 is fighting against the construction of a parking lot under a city park and the felling of trees. She joined the association "Habitat alternative social" which is active in finding housing, especially for excluded people, HIV positive or suffering from mental illness. She also chairs "Europe Social Projet Recherche Innovation", an association that works with people living on the street.

The elected representative who, during her 15 years as a family doctor in working-class neighborhoods looked after a rather young patient, also opens a listening point for adolescents, a subject that that which was delegated to health and youth when she mandate of town hall assistant in the 2nd sector knows well.

At 17, the young woman leaves the family home, crushed by a communist father with a "Mediterranean character". When she was a child, he made her play on his lap a memory game with images of Mao, Lenin or Trotsky.

"I grew up with the idea of ​​social equality between peoples", explains Michèle Rubirola who in her childhood dreamed of being a volunteer doctor in Africa.

Sportswoman, she joined the first mixed team of Olympique de Marseille, which she finally had to leave because of her too young age, and was an accomplished basketball player.

Ms. Rubirola has two daughters, 38 and 32, cellist and special education teacher for drug addicts, respectively, and a 23-year-old boy still studying.

© 2020 AFP