Sailor’s cap screwed on the head, pea coat buttoned up to the neck and gravelly voice, Paul has his habits. Every day, this year-round resident of Frioul, an island off the coast of Marseille, takes the first shuttle that “goes down” to the Old Port, that of 7:05 a.m., despite the retirement. “I arrive at 7:30 downstairs, I go to the bar, I drink a good coffee, he smiles. I’m going down because it’s the neighborhood where I was born, but I quickly yearn to come back”. At the end of the morning, he is back at the port of Frioul.
For the first round of the presidential election, he will do as usual to slip the ballot into the ballot box. “In my life, I abstained only twice. “Because the island of Frioul has no polling station. Or more precisely, the polling station is located “on the continent”, at the Palais de la Bourse, in the premises of the CCI in Marseille. “To go to vote, it’s no more complicated than going shopping, we take the shuttle,” says Eric, for whom “insularity is not a problem”. “It’s our life choice. He has lived here for ten years, and takes his boat as soon as he can. Like him, nearly 150 have chosen to live year-round in Friuli.
“A ballot box in Friuli is too complicated”
The premises of the boaters’ association, on the port, serve as a rallying point. That morning, a few days before the first round, Paul, another Eric, Jackie and Sandrine form a joyful team. They are part of the fifteen boaters who live on the boat all year round. Everyone goes with their political pike, everyone knows where the heart leans. “We discuss, that’s democracy! “says Jackie. On Sunday, everyone will go to vote at their own pace, depending on when they wake up. “Luckily it wasn’t this Sunday, with the storm, it would have been complicated,” breathes Sandrine. On days with heavy seas, the service can be reduced to a minimum, namely a morning, midday and evening shuttle.
“A ballot box in Frioul, we will never have it, it’s too complicated”, explains Michel, who has lived on the island for thirty-two years. For a time, he was one of those who asked for one. “It is the prefect who decides that, we were told that it was too complicated, he rewinds. The urn must be mounted in Frioul. What do we do if there is bad weather? Not to mention the arrival of the assessors, of the president, to open and hold a polling station. And with the introduction of the subscription, the price of the crossing is no longer really an issue for him.
With the price of fuel, the shuttle remains in any case more competitive than reaching the Old Port with your own boat, especially since the harbor master’s office is far away, on foot, from the polling station. Finally, Michel even sees advantages in “going down to Marseilles”. “We have a dedicated office, there is no waiting,” he continues, before planning for Sunday: “It will be nice, I will do my civic duty as always. Without forgetting the shopping cart “so as not to go up empty”. This famous detail which distinguishes, on the shuttle, the inhabitants of Friuli from the other passengers.