"This Mediterranean destiny we can seize (..) It is an opportunity for the city, for the region, for the country, "said the head of state, on the second day of his visit, in the breathtaking scenery of Fort Saint-Jean with the sea, the port and the hinterland on the horizon.

Continuing a series of announcements made since Monday as part of the "Marseille en grand" plan, he promised to "make Marseille an exemplary port in terms of decarbonization of maritime transport", with a faster decarbonization of fleets to face competition from other trading posts in the Mediterranean.

Emmanuel Macron also pleaded for a development of the "Hinterland" (hinterland) of the port by going "much faster and stronger on the rail and river. At the end of 2022, it launched a project for a "large port" linking Marseille to Lyon, along the Rhône furrow, for the transport of goods and energy. This corridor could be irrigated by "a dozen ports and go to connect to Bavaria" in Germany, he said Tuesday evening.

Marseille must also become a "European digital capital", with data centers and influence in cyber, he continued.

"New school"

A "blue economy" school will also be set up on the port site, in Estaque, to train "thousands of young people" from deprived neighborhoods north of Marseille, he said.

The President also announced the launch of a Mediterranean Season for 2026, in order to bring out projects from "all shores of the Mediterranean". Finally, he called for the invention of a "new radiant city" in the northern districts, to reintroduce beauty, in reference to Le Corbusier's building in the heart of the city.

In the afternoon, Emmanuel Macron had announced to double the state envelope for public hospitals in the second city of France --to the tune of 479 million euros--, with the bonus of the reconstruction of the Army Training Hospital on a new site.

Earlier in the morning, from a school under renovation in the northern districts of the city, the president had welcomed the pedagogical innovations launched in some 80 Marseille primary schools. "We invented a new school (..) At first, if we talk frankly, there was a lot of reluctance, it completely shakes up basic ideologies, "conceded Emmanuel Macron, who wants to see this laboratory of "schools of the future" extended everywhere in France.

But resistance remains strong, a large majority of the 470 schools in Marseille have not wished at this stage to engage in this device.

Reluctance

New argument to join: the schools that participate will be able to use the culture pass, reserved for the moment for high schools.

With pedagogical experimentation, "the danger is that we are no longer dealing with a school of the Republic but with completely different schools depending on the territories", leading to a "real break in equal opportunities", worries Virginie Akliouat, departmental secretary of the FSU-SNUipp (first degree).

The head of state, who imagines the second city of France as the laboratory of his public policies, also wants to "reopen" the debate on school time over the year, because "when we have a three-month holiday, inequality returns," he insisted.

On Monday, he had already announced that he wanted to split classes from the middle section of kindergarten, gradually expand the hours in college until 18:00, and offer the possibility of entering school from two years old.

President Emmanuel Macron (L) talks with Marseille Mayor Benoît Payan (R) during a visit to a primary school in Marseille with National Education Minister Pap Ndiaye on June 27, 2023 © GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO / POOL / AFP

The diverse-left mayor of Marseille, Benoît Payan, welcomed the investments without "equivalent in the country since 1945 for schools": "we will have completed by 2026 the renovation and reconstruction of 60 schools," he promised, including the one overlooking the city of Castellane, where Zinedine Zidane grew up.

On Wednesday, the last day of his visit, Emmanuel Macron will return to the challenges in terms of housing, with 40,000 slums to renovate, and the issues of the port. With potentially more demonstrations of anger against the policies of his government.

On the Old Port, late Tuesday afternoon, about 250 demonstrators protested against the dissolution of the environmental movement Earth Uprisings (SLT). "It's not your laboratory, it's Marseille BB," proclaimed one banner. "They're going to fan the fire more than anything else" by dissolving the SLTs, said Steven Jia, a doctoral student who came to protest.

© 2023 AFP