All it takes is a morning news review to be convinced of this: In Marseille, the “local chicayas (complaints, lamentations, conflicts)”, which Emmanuel Macron called for to be put aside for the good of his plan “Marseille en grand”, are never far away. “Blocked for many months due to differences between the city of Marseille (DVG) and the Metropolis (DVD), the Minopolis project (600 million euros) could finally begin”, explains this Wednesday the magazine Challenges about the Arnavaux wholesale market.
The same day, Provence is echoed in a brief that Renaud Muselier (Renaissance), president of the Paca region, defends his near square of economic competence against a municipality treading on its flowerbeds. A handful of days ago, Marsactu headline: “The municipal council replays for the umpteenth time the “chicayas” of local politics “. This Friday, it was in our columns that we could read that Après-M, this social and solidarity fast food supported by the Marseille town hall, would not be supported by the region, although competent in the register of social and solidarity economy. So Chicayas everywhere, concord nowhere? A little more than two years after the words of the President of the Republic, 20 minutes looks back at three characteristic “chicayeries”.
Compensation for traders after riots taken to court
This is perhaps not the best known chicayery but it is devilishly effective in obstructing public action. The day after the riots following Nahel’s death, during which nearly 400 businesses were damaged in Marseille, the town hall indicated that it was releasing an envelope of two million euros to help traders rebuild their windows. The next day, the region and the metropolis, competent in matters of economic matters, announced, via the CCI, exceptional aid of 10 million euros. So that’s 12 million, enough to satisfy everyone?
Well no ! Treading on the grounds of political rivals clearly cannot go unpunished and revenge is a dish best served cold, as we know on the political side. The region of Renaud Muselier therefore patiently waited until August 31, and nearly 650,000 euros in expenses already incurred by the town hall (for which it could be sanctioned) to challenge this compensation in court. Height of chicayerie: if the region has specified Marsactu that “this type of fairly systematic recourse on our part when a community usurps a competence”, she adds “if the Marseille town hall had done things according to the rules and asked for our approval – which we would have granted willingly – it there would have been no problem.”
The transport war
Ah, transport in Marseille. Their development towards the north and east of the city was also one of the promises of the Marseille plan on a large scale, not to write THE promise. Since this flagship announcement of the launch of the “Marseille en grand” plan in September 2021, this subject seems to have been an inexhaustible source of chicayas. “The tram to the Catalans is the stupidest thing I have heard (…) I would prevent it. I would use all my police powers. There will be no tramway in Catalans until the tramway to the north is launched,” claimed Benoît Payan in an interview with 20 minutes in June 2022.
And maybe the mayor of Marseille won this round. Last February, the first rails of the new tramway towards the northern districts were posed. But there’s no reason to stop the match, politics is a combat sport. During the last municipal council, the mayor of Marseille brought it up again during a discussion on the closure of the metros in the evening, explaining that the GIP (Public Interest Group) dedicated to the construction of these infrastructures was no longer meeting. : “The State no longer wants to finance what it had promised, because the 200 million euros of investment was indexed to the construction of transport in the northern districts”. And to be sent back on the ropes by Sabrina Roubache, Marseille Renaissance MP and Minister of the City, notably in charge of the “Marseille en grand” plan: “The GIP Transports is a working meeting which has absolutely nothing to do with the subsidy. The subsidy of 500 million euros has already been granted by the President of the Republic,” explained the minister. from the site Gomet. You can’t win every round.
And when Macron gets involved
As a result, even Emmanuel Macron, THE slayer of the “chicayas”, has set foot in the Marseille backwater. The time of a meeting with Nicolas Pagnol last June, in the midst of a controversy – very local – over the Château de la Buzine. The Marseille town hall wants to take over management, to the great dismay of Marcel Pagnol’s grandson, who until then chaired the site’s delegated association. The local right is ignited on the theme of the defense of Provençal culture. The vote in the department of a motion of support for Nicolas Pagnol’s association created a session incident, with a Marseille left leaving the hemicycle.
On Twitter (then not yet X), the president of the departmental council Martine Vassal welcomes “that at the same time today department and region” vote on such a motion. Emmanuel Macron’s visit begins a few days later, under the sign of a certain tension with Mayor Benoît Payan, whom the Head of State would like to see more accountable to the “Marseille en grand” plan. The local right is whispering to the president this crazy idea of meeting Nicolas Pagnol. Basically, this changes nothing in the destiny of “my mother’s castle”. But the affair illustrates how culture is not safe from the “Chicayas” either.