Marseilles (AFP)
After having plunged into the problems of insecurity in the cities of the north of the city, Emmanuel Macron continued his visit to Marseille on Thursday by attending the start of the school year before detailing an emergency plan for the city.
On the second day of his visit to Marseille, the Head of State will return to the northern districts, the most popular of the city.
He will be welcomed at 9:30 am in a CM2 class at the Bouge school, in the 13th arrondissement, on the day of the start of the school year with the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer and the socialist mayor Benoît Payan.
He will take stock of the health protocol put in place for this second school year affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
More specifically, he will also meet with teachers and parents of students on the need to renovate this small neighborhood school, some of whose facilities, such as the gymnasium, are very degraded, as in many schools in the city.
This field visit will be followed by the presentation, in the afternoon at the Palais du Pharo, of the plan "Marseille en grand" which will include a series of measures and projects, "co-produced with the communities", according to the Elysée, for an amount that has not been disclosed but is expected to exceed one billion euros.
Emmanuel Macron will announce in particular that the State will participate largely in the vast renovation plan, launched by the municipality, of more than 200 of the 472 schools in the city.
In this illustrative photo taken on September 1, 2020, children wearing satchels arrive at Clément Falcucci elementary school in Toulouse, on the first day of the start of the school year against the backdrop of the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic Lionel BONAVENTURE AFP /Archives
Prefabricated sometimes installed for years or, in some establishments, rats in the classrooms, roof that collapses or bedbugs in the dormitories: "Schools are unworthy of the Republic", summarizes Mr. Payan, who assesses at 1.2 billion euros the financing needs of the first tranche.
Education is one of the three priorities of this vast plan, presented as "historic", to allow the second city of France - nearly 900,000 inhabitants for the city and 1.6 million for the agglomeration - to attempt to catch up.
The other two are public transport in a city that has only two metro lines and the rehabilitation of unsanitary housing nearly three years after the tragedy of the collapse of buildings in the rue d'Aubagne.
He should announce a program for the Timone hospital.
- "in campaign" -
"Many things that we are going to launch will not have results immediately, I am lucid. (...) We will do the maximum but I cannot tell you that we will succeed", he said. he said Wednesday.
Skepticism is shared by residents and local elected officials, who recall that many plans have been announced for decades for Marseille, without the situation improving significantly.
French President Emmanuel Macron greets people as he leaves the Bassens district on the first day of a three-day visit to Marseille, September 1, 2021 Ludovic MARIN POOL / AFP
"Of course that gives rise to hope. After that it should not be a one-shot", reacted the mayor after the Marseille conceding that "everything will not be done in six months, not in a year" .
"We are going to see you today and then we will not see you again, that's why we are asking you to do something for the cities of Marseille," said Bilal, a 32-year-old garbage collector in the popular city. from Bassens.
"It is necessary that we have results" so that "our inhabitants really see that there is a difference", recognized for its part the president LR of the metropolis, Martine Vassal.
But Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI), present as a deputy at a meeting with local elected officials, denounced "the pilgrimage of the promises" of the president, who "is in an electoral campaign", betting that "not a euro of these promises will not will be spent before the election ".
Eight months before the presidential election, this trip is widely commented on on the national political scene, the right-wing opposition focusing its criticism on the security record of Emmanuel Macron in Marseille, and beyond at the national level, while the left demands that the state is putting more resources into social services.
After a dinner on Thursday with the head of the Italian government Mario Draghi, Emmanuel Macron will dedicate the day Friday to the environment, with a sea trip in the Calanques National Park and the opening of the World Congress of the International Union for conservation of nature (IUCN), which is held in Marseille until September 11.
© 2021 AFP