From taxi to homeless, route of a deputy from the northern districts of Marseille

• Sébastien Delogu, 35, was elected Nupes deputy in Marseille on June 19.

• Child of the northern districts, he knew the misery and the nights without housing to sleep in his car.

• Portrait of a longtime militant and activist whose meeting with Jean-Luc Mélenchon probably changed his life.

June 21, 2022, shortly after 1 p.m., in the gardens of the Palais Bourbon.

The deputies of Nupes have just made their entry into the National Assembly and Sébastien Delogo, elected from the northern districts of Marseille, bursts into tears in the arms of Jean-Luc Mélenchon as the leader of La France insoumise passes him the scarf tricolor.

The emotion, the memories of all his years of struggle, his future or the dizziness of putting on a costume that nothing predisposed him to put on and of a life that changes forever.

The feelings are mixed, and obviously too strong for the child of Consolat, a disadvantaged district of Marseille, now 35 years old.

"I am someone who cries often", confides to

Sebastien Delogu.

As in 2012, when before the judge he finds himself expelled from his accommodation, the lease of which was in the name of his mother.

In the process, he got involved in the union of the National Confederation of Housing.

“The misery of the world, I have known it, and see it around me”.

Speaking of misery, Sébastien knows what it's all about, he who was sleeping in his car on the street 10 months ago.

"I had a monumental ordeal, and now it's over," he eludes, without dwelling on him.

Because of him alone, it has rarely been a question in his struggles.

“He wanted to be an activist without being paid, to forget to look for a job, with generosity and disinterested sincerity”, abounds Lise Maillard, director of cabinet of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

We have often presented Sébastien Delogu, former taxi,

as the personal driver of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“But he was never paid for that”, assures the young woman.

“I did it as an activist because someone needed to drive him around Marseille, and that I know how to do,” explains the new deputy.

Above all, these hours of discussion form him and sharpen him politically, he who started working at 18 years old.

Nights to change the world while waiting for the customer

It was as a taxi driver, the same profession as his father, that he entered the political world.

Sofiane, childhood acquaintance and taxi driver in Marseille just like him, remembers “the nights to remake the world while waiting at the Jean-Ballard station”, that of the Old Port.

Together, they participate in the mobilization of 2016 against the uberization of the profession.

"No taxis, no taxes, no hospital beds", summarizes Sofiane who sees in Sébastien "a leader, always in action".

Marseilles delegate in the assembly of Taxi de France, Sébastien Delogu meets Danièle Simonnet, at the time coordinator of LFI, during this one.

She introduced him to Jean-Luc Mélenchon during his 2017 legislative campaign in Marseille.

“They are two diametrically opposed people,

but with mutual esteem and an authentic personality, ”says Mohamed Bensaada, LFI secretary for Bouches-du-Rhône, unsuccessful candidate in the last elections in the neighboring constituency, won by the RN.

Sébastien's road, Mohamed crossed him for the first time in 2013, when the “Marseille Capital of Rupture” was organized in the working-class neighborhoods, in opposition to the “Capital of Culture” celebrated by the institutions.

“The political path, I have seen him do it.

At the beginning, his speeches focused on observations of life in the neighborhoods and today he manages to develop solutions”, continues Mohamed.

Sébastien's road, Mohamed crossed him for the first time in 2013, when the “Marseille Capital of Rupture” was organized in the working-class neighborhoods, in opposition to the “Capital of Culture” celebrated by the institutions.

“The political path, I have seen him do it.

At the beginning, his speeches focused on observations of life in the neighborhoods and today he manages to develop solutions”, continues Mohamed.

Sébastien's road, Mohamed crossed him for the first time in 2013, when the “Marseille Capital of Rupture” was organized in the working-class neighborhoods, in opposition to the “Capital of Culture” celebrated by the institutions.

“The political path, I have seen him do it.

At the beginning, his speeches focused on observations of life in the neighborhoods and today he manages to develop solutions”, continues Mohamed.

"Everything for the fight"

Solutions first in the form of a punch action.

Like in 2018, when with other parents of students, they decide to repaint their children's school themselves.

While this very political operation is on the television news and the evening papers, Sébastien goes back to his car to sleep there.

However, he was not far from stopping everything in 2019-2020.

The European elections where an LFI-EELV alliance is formed show him the worst of politics.

Negotiations for the nominations from which he is finally dismissed, egos, struggles for influence.

Rebelote with the municipal elections in 2020, where LFI is banned from the left-wing coalition of Printemps Marseillais.

But it is in the fight that the animal is built and "everything for the fight", this is now his mantra, even if it means abandoning family life.

"He is very strong to fight, because in the neighborhoods, they have only done this all their lives", summarizes Justin de Gonzague, anthropologist-documentary filmmaker who follows Sébastien Delogu, first as a "subject of study" before to edit videos of his actions.

“It's a hybrid.

I followed him because he does not respond to the stigmata of the northern districts, he is neither Arab nor Muslim (Algerian-Spanish by his mother, Armenian-Italian by his father), and yet he is from there- low”, understands the anthropologist.

To help him intellectualize his struggles and develop his imagination, Justin guides him on the paths of literature.

the Albert Londres prize from Marseille Philippe Pujol, the novels of Jean-Claude Izzo, another Marseilles native, but also a bit of Balzac.

“Never heard of him”

Member of the social commission of the National Assembly, Sébastien knows the weight that rests on his shoulders.

“You criticized because the others weren't doing the job and today I'm in their place.

You have to work,” he concludes.

With this promise, that of fighting again and again against injustice: “they will not sleep peacefully”.

At the time of concluding this portrait, it is clear that his political opponents are difficult to find.

Selloum Areski, the RN candidate who faced him in the second round, testified that he had "never heard of him" until then.

Saïd Ahamada, the outgoing LREM deputy and beaten in the first round in this 7th constituency of Marseille, did not wish to speak.

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Policy

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• Marseilles

• Nudes

• Deputy

• La France Insoumise (LFI)

• Northern neighborhoods

• Jean-Luc Melenchon

• Paca