President Emmanuel Macron started a three-day visit to Marseille on Monday to get a first hand view of the improvements in the country’s second largest city. He insisted that "things needed to go much faster".
Macron travelled with a phalanx of high-powered colleagues including the Interior Minister, Gérald Darmanin, the Justice Minister, Eric Dupond-Moretti, the Transport Minister, Clément Beaune, and the Housing Minister, Olivier Klein.
The top level delegation comes as part of Macron’s grand plan for the metropolis which has suffered years of neglect from administrations from both sides of the political spectrum
In September 2021, Macron promised €5 billion in government support to freshen up dilapidated schools, improve housing as well as transport links. There was also a pledge to make the streets safer from drug dealers and criminal gangs.
During a speech at the Pharo Palace on the seafront in front of local dignitaries, Macron described Marseille as a world city that was poorer than other cities … but also full of energy.
Nearly two years later, on the eve of his arrival, Macron announced that in order to combat the low payment rate of fines, police officers would soon be equipped with electronic terminals so that anyone found guilty of a minor drugs offence could pay instantly with a credit card or with cash.
"We introduced a fixed fine of up to 2,500 euros, 350,000 have been issued in France since September 2020, including 29,000 in Marseille," Macron told the local paper La Provence. ahead of his visit.
Transport plans
"But what we have found is that since payment is made online between 45 and 60 days later, we have a recovery rate of 35 percent.
"And it's below that average in Marseille. This is unacceptable."
Macron said Darmanin would introduce legislation before the end of the summer to help with the crackdown.
And in an effort to discover the extent of the crime problems, following talks with Benoit Payan, the city's mayor, Macron is set to tour the Évêché, the headquarters of the police criminal investigation department, in order to talk to officers.
He is also due to visit the construction site of a 740-place extension to the Baumettes 3 prison complex. A meeting with campaigners involved in the fight against insecurity and crime in the Campanules district of the city is also scheduled.
A day will also be given to studying progress on the transport links in Marseille.
With a surface area two and a half times that of Paris, Marseille has only two metro lines and three tram lines.
The northern districts, which are the most densely populated, are poorly served.
Macron on Monday announced an overall doubling of funding to 500 million euros to improve the situation.
"We have to recognise that Marseille and its surrounding area have not been helped for years, either by right-wing or left-wing governments," said Martine Vassal, chair of the transport authority Metropole.
Even though Macron's visit centres on parochial issues, it is understood district trade unions plan to hold a rally in front of the prefecture to demonstrate against his controversial pension reforms.
