City hall of Marseille: the unknown Rubirola

Text by: Stéphane Burgatt

She is the first woman mayor of Marseille. His election to this position marks the end of a quarter of a century of right-wing politics for the city. Who is Michèle Rubirola?

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She wipes a tear from the corner of her eyes. His nerves were put to the test after an election at the end of the suspense. Michèle Rubirola mayor of Marseille, no one would have bet a cent on it 6 months ago.

On the forecourt of the town hall, where his activists waited long hours for "white smoke", his first walkabout reminded him of reality. Michèle Rubirola still seems to have a hard time believing it.

A candidate despite herself?

Here it is in the spotlight. He will have to force his nature. This 63-year-old doctor is not one to put himself forward. At the start of this campaign, when Printemps Marseillais (PM) was looking for a leader, it was not her that we saw wearing the costume; it is especially not what we expected.

Benoît Payan, then leader of the socialist opposition on the municipal council, seemed to pose as a natural leader. Not Michèle Rubirola, far from it. But the "Spring" list is a union of different left parties. The designation, problematic, will be towards a consensus candidate, less "marked" politically. Suspended from the regional office of Europe Ecologie-les Verts (EELV), for having supported the PM, from its conception, in a forum published in the press, Michèle Rubirola won the casting. She becomes the candidate that no one had seen coming. Ironically, the green party will join it to merge its lists in between the two towers.

► Read also: France: Michèle Rubirola, first woman elected mayor of Marseille, turns the city to the left

An activist

His political experience is quite poor. She entered modestly, through the back door, with a first mandate in 2008 as elected sector in the 2nd and 3rd arrondissements. Near this town hall of sector acquired from the socialist party, she is in charge of youth and health.

She will lead two unsuccessful campaigns in the 2007 and 2012 legislative elections for Les Verts, then EELV. Three years after this last failure, she was elected to the departmental council of Bouches-du-Rhône, alongside Benoît Payan.

But before these few experiences, Michèle Rubirola forged herself in militancy. Its commitment is in favor of ecologism and alter-globalism from the 70s. It is committed against nuclear power, the dams of the Loire and will even make a passage on the very symbolic plateau of Larzac.

A Marseillaise

Daughter of Catalan and Neapolitan immigrants, she grew up in the Rouet district. She still lives there. His father is a communist activist. The young woman is interested in sport. She joined the first mixed team of Olympique de Marseille and practiced basketball.

Carried towards the other, she commits to medical studies. She dreamed of volunteering as a doctor in Africa, but devoted herself to the patients of her city. Initially a general practitioner, she will devote herself to an education program for patients in situations of social vulnerability.

Painful campaign

A seasoned doctor, she still has to learn the codes of politics, which is not her job. Candidate Rubirola is blundering, uncomfortable during her visits to the media. Benoît Payan, who had to step aside, remains by his side, the shoulder in these moments. And faced with her lack of comfort in front of the microphones, we understand how she did not take this trajectory by calculation. "  I did not get up one day saying to myself I will become mayor of Marseille,  " she says.

Quite discreet in the media, she will find a reason to refuse the inter-round debate. Michèle Rubirola wants to spare herself the “insults” of her rival Martine Vassal who qualifies her as candidate of “the ultra left” and false nose of the deputy Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Baptism by fire

But his tour de force remains the third round of this municipal election. In Marseille, as in Lyon and Paris, the election of the mayor is indirect. The voter elects municipal councilors who in turn vote for the mayor at the first municipal council. This rule, purposely devised by former mayor and minister Gaston Defferre, favors inter-party arrangements .

This election was an example. If the Marseilles Spring has a little more than 13,000 votes in advance at the polls, it has only 3 additional municipal councilors than its rival from the Les Républicains (LR) party.

The experienced ex-socialist senator Samia Ghali, with her independent list, then arises as an arbitrator. Her demands are enormous, she wants to be designated first assistant. At 24 hours of the poll Michèle Rubirola takes the risk of breaking off the negotiations, concluding: "  I will not be hostage to any blackmail  ".

The game of liar poker will continue, by interposed media, then during the interruptions of the session of a municipal council where the right kept its chances of winning on the green carpet. War of attrition, war of nerves ... Samia Ghali will finally end up behind her candidacy, without any personal consideration. Sacred political baptism.

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