• Emmanuel Macron will hold a meeting this Saturday in Marseille, at the Palais du Pharo.

  • A very symbolic choice since it is from there that a few months ago, the President of the Republic made announcements for the second city of France.

  • Some of the Marseille supporters of the head of state have since brandished this plan as an argument for the re-election of Emmanuel Macron

The same scene will replay, in the same place, a few months later, with the same characters.

With one detail, which is not one: when Emmanuel Macron treads the lawn of the garden of the Palais du Pharo in Marseille this Saturday, overlooking the Old Port, he will not come as President of the Republic... but as candidate for re-election, a few days before a second round that is promised tight.

“There is a fairly strong symbolism in the choice of this place, recognizes Pascal Chamassian, responsible for the communication of the presidential majority in the Bouches-du-Rhône.

It's more than subliminal.

“Last September, Emmanuel Macron announced here his Marseille plan in large, which allowed, with the help of promised billions of euros, to develop schools, transport and other shortcomings that the second city of France has been accumulating for decades.

What about the Marseille plan on a large scale?

A plan which was intended at the time to be devoid of any electoral calculation… until a declaration by one of his ministers caused trouble.

Last week, in front of a handful of journalists including

20 Minutes

Marseille, the Minister for the City Nadia Hai wanted to be categorical.

“If the president is not re-elected, there will be no more Marseille in large, affirms the elected representative of Trappes.

Whether with the extreme left or with the extreme right, there will be no republican continuity.

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From there to make this plan an electoral argument, in a city which placed Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the head of the votes?

"It's just factual, when you know the construction of public finances," says LREM MP for Marseille Claire Pitollat.

Each year, we vote on a budget.

In December, we sanctuarized everything related to schools and mobility, for example.

But there are still other parts of this plan to integrate.

It will be spread over ten good years.

If the president is not re-elected, what will be done with the Marseille plan in general?

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"We must vote for the one who does good"

“I am appalled that we have not talked more locally about this plan in this campaign, launches Bruno Gilles, head of the municipal committee Horizons Marseille.

This is an argument that must be put forward in this between-two-rounds.

At some point, you also have to call for a selfish vote.

We must vote for the one who does good!

The President of the Republic said he loved Marseille.

It provides funding.

So be selfish!

Think of you!

I'm not sure that other Presidents of the Republic would do the same.

The previous ones had affection for Marseille but sea urchins in their pockets.

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“We must not see things through the small end of the telescope, tempers Bertrand Mas-Fraissinet, LREM referent in the department.

On the other hand, it is true that the Marseilles plan in large is illustrative of a method of the President of the Republic, who wanted to make Marseilles a laboratory city.

“I also think that Emmanuel Macron wants to go further for Marseille, if he is re-elected, predicts Pascal Chamassian.

It's the first time that the state has helped Marseille so much, but it happened, I'm sure, outside of politicians' calculations, beyond political divisions.

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"The Marseille plan in large gives meaning to a form of political overcoming which is strongly anchored in the DNA of the President of the Republic, affirms the mayor of the Marseille sector Lionel Royer-Perreaut, who recently rallied Emmanuel Macron.

So this plan can't hurt us.

It remains to be seen whether this argument will convince Marseille voters, especially those in the majority who did not vote for the head of state.

"In the field, people talk to me more about security and drug trafficking...", notes Lionel Royer-Perreaut.

Policy

Presidential 2022: Emmanuel Macron at an outdoor meeting this Saturday in Marseille

Elections

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  • Emmanuel Macron

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