At the bottom of the city of Bassens, the prices are displayed. It's a big tag painted on a wall:
“10 € Bon. € 30 yellow. 50 € Moula. 300 € Plak. Good smoke. ”
At the foot of the drug point of sale, four good-natured CRS stand guard with sunglasses, guns and bulletproof vests. Children frolicking pay little attention to it. There is activity in this city of the northern districts of Marseille. Emmanuel Macron will arrive. After a meeting with elected officials, this is where the President of the Republic decided to begin his three-day stay in Marseille. In the heart of neighborhoods plagued by drug trafficking and the settling of scores between dealers. Already fifteen dead since the beginning of the year, often very young.
"There is no territory prohibited for the Republic," assures an adviser to the president.
He had a real volun
side
to show it and start his trip by meeting with elected officials and the people, to talk about everyday subjects. "
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In Bassens, it's a lot of insecurity. The elders are alarmed by the outburst of violence that is sweeping over the Phocaean city, within reach of their mobile phones. A resident in his 50s scrolls through the videos he has taken recently on his phone. Police pursued by young people in a general fight. A body lying in the street, brains dripping on the floor after a settling of scores.
"It was Samia Ghali who was right, we need the army
," he pleads.
And reopen the Cayenne penal colony. ”
However,
“it's a good neighborhood here,”
says another resident.
Everyone knows each other. When there are deaths, we help families "
.
But like many, he is fatalistic.
He has lived here for more than fifty years and he does not expect much from Emmanuel Macron.
"He's going to come, he's going to talk, he's going to leave and it's going to be like it was before."
With fewer police officers, then.
For the arrival of the president, the deployment of the police is spectacular.
But if the Head of State was greeted by a few whistles at the town hall, it was cheers that rang out on his arrival in Bassens.
"We are not going to let go"
Some 300 people are waiting for him, many young people, each one more fun than the next.
"You are going to tell me what is wrong
,
"
Emmanuel Macron
tells
them.
"Go Om!
a child answers him.
Can you recruit Bilal Boutobba? ”
Another warns him:
"You cannot go there, there is too much waste, and you have
(he looks at Emmanuel Macron's shoes)
Pierre Cardin."
Next to that, we are also asking for “
work and permanent contracts”
. And then
"we have an abandoned school, it's been ten years".
A cry:
"Speak less loudly, it's on TikTok."
All the laptops are brandished.
It's the stampede.
Faced with the crowd, the CRS form a cordon around the room where the president rushes in to discuss with an association of women in the neighborhood.
CLANG!
The heavy metal door closes over the chair.
For over an hour, he listens to complaints.
Children from northern districts excluded from Parcoursup, school dropouts, unemployment.
"We have to stop stigmatizing us by saying 'since you come from the northern districts, since you have the wrong address, you cannot go into such or such school, do an internship in such or such a company'" ,
asks a young man.
And then the violence returns to the conversation.
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A mother tells him about her child,
"a young man without history"
, killed at the age of 21.
"Barbarism has set in,
assures a participant.
I am sometimes asked for my identity card to enter my building. ”
Emmanuel Macron listens, speaks little. He has a plan.
“There are things that are progressing, there are neighborhoods where the situation is very difficult. We will take it step by step
.
We are not going to let go, a lot of time has already been lost. The answer is safe ”,
he slips, before leaving to unveil his plan at the district police station where the Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin is waiting for him. But we will have to convince. If on his departure, the President of the Republic is applauded as on his arrival, doubts persist about his intentions.
"And why is he coming here?" Nine months before the elections. It's windy!
annoys a resident.
What have they done for the neighborhoods, the politicians? Do you find it normal to live there? In the middle of the waste? "
around her, her friends approve. Emmanuel Macron, who said he was moved by these meetings, still has two days to persuade the Marseillais.
