Stéphane Burgatt, in Marseille, edited by Thibaud Le Meneec 7:56 p.m., August 31, 2021

A white march took place Tuesday evening in Marseille against the settling of scores, on the eve of a three-day visit by President Emmanuel Macron.

Residents, some of whom have been bereaved, are calling for a truly effective plan to fight drug trafficking.  

REPORTING

A white march started from the Old Port of Marseille on Tuesday evening, in tribute to the victims of the settling of scores and against violence linked to drug trafficking.

This initiative comes as the head of state begins a three-day visit to the city of Provence on Wednesday.

Emmanuel Macron will announce a multi-billion euro plan to try to address the problems inherent in France's second city.

The rejection of "plans that come from Paris"

Tuesday, in the early evening, the procession headed for the prefecture, the opportunity to put pressure on less than 24 hours of the arrival of the head of state.

"It is a very, very big distress signal" emitted by the inhabitants, warns Amini Kessaci, the organizer of this white march.

"We want to tell him 'now, stop, we have to stop coming with plans that come to us from Paris, plans that come to us from 3,000 km from here.' The suburb plan, we all know what happened. The drug plan, we all know what happened. On the contrary, with all these plans, the situation has become more and more dramatic and more and more serious. "

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Amine Kessasi recently lost his brother in a settling of scores and he is not the only Marseillais to be bereaved.

The prayer of all these Marseillais is that this spiral of violence comes to an end.

Even if some, like Baya, a bereaved mother of a family, expect nothing from President Macron: "I already shouted it once when they killed my son, 'stop this massacre, stop!' stops. I say that again to all the people who can do something, please… "

"Macron doesn't care about our lives"

The bereaved mother sharply criticizes the supposed intentions of the President of the Republic: "Tomorrow (Wednesday, editor's note), he comes Macron, but he only comes to show his slice and then he will carve himself. He does not care about our lives. "

Fifteen people in total have been killed this year in the settling of scores. The mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, publicly called for the creation of a special prosecutor's office and the arrival of 900 police reinforcements. To counter the inaction trials investigated by part of the political class, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, affirmed that there was "no lawless zone on the territory of the Republic, in Marseille as elsewhere". The Minister of the Interior adds that he ordered a major anti-drug operation today at the Cité des Flamants, in Marseille.