Paris (AFP)
Schools, transport, housing, employment ...: Emmanuel Macron returns to Marseille on Friday to take stock of the plan for the rebirth of the second city in France that he presented in early September.
What has advanced in a month and a half?
The time will be for "a first review of the commitments" made between the Head of State and Marseille's elected officials since the announcement of the "Marseille en grand" plan on September 2.
This inventory will be drawn up in the evening during a dinner scheduled at 8:30 p.m. at the prefecture which will bring together Emmanuel Macron, the socialist mayor Benoît Payan, the LR president of the Aix-Marseille metropolis and of the Martine Vassal (LR) department and local authorities and government officials.
In the entourage of the president, one welcomes the "progress of the principal sites", while envisaging that the meeting will make it possible to refine the calendar of their implementation.
Volunteer on the issue, Benoît Payan also said he hoped that this second presidential visit, before a third scheduled for February, would prove "fruitful".
President Emmanuel Macron and the mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, September 2, 2021, during a three-day visit by the Head of State to Marseille Guillaume HORCAJUELO POOL / AFP
For her part, Martine Vassal reiterated Thursday to have "a lot of hope and optimism", before this visit.
In particular on the particularly sensitive point of the metropolis, which brings together 92 municipalities, and whose operation had been criticized by Emmanuel Macron.
She assured that "a consensus" had emerged within the metropolis to launch a reform of this community in order to refocus on "its strategic skills".
"Now the ball is in the government's court, which must change the law", after having set up this metropolis "ill born and too bulimic since its creation" in 2016, insisted the elected LR, who must meet in the evening the Minister of Cohesion of the Territories Jacqueline Gourault, in charge of the file.
Pierre Moscovici will also participate in the dinner, the First President of the Court of Auditors, who explained Thursday in Marseille that the role of financial jurisdictions was "to be trusted third parties", that is to say to "allow to validate the good use of public funds "in the major investments planned for the city.
- "Unprecedented" -
The total amount of the "Marseille en grand" plan has not been formally established.
State participation is estimated at 1.5 billion euros, excluding school renovation.
Benoît Payan presented on Monday an "unprecedented" program to bring the school park up to standard, of which he stressed the urgency.
He put it at 1.2 billion euros, with more than 810 million to the 174 schools (out of a total of 472) most dilapidated for heavy renovations or reconstructions.
On the educational level, Emmanuel Macron will take stock of his experimental proposal allowing the directors of fifty "laboratory" schools to choose their teachers.
In his entourage, we put forward a certain interest in the teaching body, but the intersyndicale FSU-FO-CGT-SUD and CNT launched a call to demonstrate Friday at 6 pm at the bottom of the Canebière to demand "abandonment" of this experimentation.
The unions denounced the ban on demonstrating in front of the prefecture, "a first in this department".
The dinner discussions will also focus on the other priorities of "Marseille en grand", foremost among which is transport with the objective of opening up the working-class neighborhoods in the north of the city, the most deprived and affected by the violence resulting from traffic. drug.
Public transport in Marseille Kenan AUGEARD AFP
The State is prepared to devote a billion euros to it, a sum which may seem "impressive" but "remains a timid investment when we know the accumulated delay in Marseille", according to elected environmentalists in the city.
Respecting the tradition of presidents of attending their congress once during the term of office, Emmanuel Macron will meet on Saturday the officials of the 250,000 firefighters in France, 80% of whom are volunteers.
With the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, he will be able to assert the agreement reached between deputies and senators on a bill to better promote volunteer firefighters which provides for more advantageous financial subsidies or easier access to social housing.
But the firefighters plan to ask for more for the volunteers, especially in retirement compensation, they said.
For professionals, the deputies voted on Wednesday in committee to remove the wage premium on the fire premium which will result in an increase of 53 euros per month on their payslip.
© 2021 AFP