For her second surprise trip at the end of the campaign, Valérie Pécresse went to the northern districts of Marseille on the evening of Thursday March 31, two days after an incursion into Roubaix against communitarianism.
This time, the right-wing candidate for the presidency had discreetly prepared this nocturnal immersion in one of the sectors of the Marseille city reputed to be the poorest in France, plagued by trafficking and delinquency.
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At 11:10 p.m., his vehicle entered the city of La Bricarde.
According to the organizers of the trip, the police have just been notified.
The candidate is supervised by agents responsible for her security, while a Bac team soon joins the procession of four cars.
After a first stop at the foot of a building where her arrival is announced by cries of young people in barely visible balaclavas, Valérie Pécresse goes to the Paternelle roundabout.
She gets out of her car to observe a dam lit by a brazier.
This is one of the city's deal spots.
Other young people start screaming.
The regular interventions of the police forces do not succeed in preventing the systematic reconstruction of these barriers, delimiting traffic zones which can bring in up to 100,000 euros per day.
“The President of the Republic has come to Marseille twice.
He said that was going to change, that the Republic would be at home everywhere and the Republic is not at home everywhere.
Against public impotence I propose zero impunity.
»
Valerie Pécresse
Faced with what looks like an impasse, Valérie Pécresse targets power.
“
The President of the Republic has come to Marseille twice.
He said that was going to change, that the Republic would be at home everywhere and the Republic is not at home everywhere.
Against public impotence, I propose zero impunity
”, she declares before getting back into her car when the movements of two wheels suggest that young people are tempted to come “
in contact
”.
Last September, after a three-day visit to Marseille and the northern districts, Emmanuel Macron said he had "
learned a lot
" about the difficulties of France's second city.
"
The northern districts of Marseille are a chance if we give ourselves the means to invest in people and reinvent places
," he said.
During this trip, the Head of State announced the launch of a vast plan, "
Marseille en grand
», counting 32 measures.
He returned to Marseille a month later to check the progress of the projects announced for transport, schools and urban renewal.
An ambition of 1.5 billion euros.
In terms of security, this plan provided for human and logistical resources (200 police officers in 2022, deployment of video surveillance, vehicles, digital tools, police station, etc.).
“A lot of promises”
Within the police station of the North division, Valérie Pécresse exchanges with professionals and measures the extent of the challenges to be met: increase in police custody and arrivals of unaccompanied minors, skyrocketing crack rate, drop in the price of cocaine. .. Three FO union officials paint a worrying picture of the existing means of coping.
Understaffed, judicial follow-up hampered by the lack of places in prisons, weak deployment of video surveillance in Marseille... The police explain that drug trafficking is based on a system of recruitment of young dealers from all regions. of France.
This makes the traceability of networks more difficult because these newcomers have no local connection.
Read alsoPresidential 2022: in Roubaix, Valérie Pécresse returns to the sovereign terrain
Before concluding her surprise incursion into Marseille, Valérie Pécresse confides: “
There were a lot of promises made and there, obviously, the police forces are doing a colossal job but there is a lack of means and sanctions.
All traffic continues.
You have seen closed territories in the Republic and I do not accept it.
At some point, we have to punish, we need zero impunity, the Republic must be at home everywhere and that's what I came to say this evening in the northern districts of Marseille
.
Why would the candidate succeed where all the others have failed?
Valérie Pécresse affirms that she would give herself the means to act, in particular by creating the necessary prison places and by launching an emergency plan for justice.
According to a crime report in Marseille established by the local public prosecutor's office and judicial court, a general increase in homicides, rapes and drug trafficking was noted in 2021. Since the beginning of 2022, 9 victims of settling of accounts have been recorded in the region.
On March 7, a 22-year-old young man was shot dead with a Kalashnikov in the 15th arrondissement of Marseille.
