“I discovered a week later that it was indeed her. Michel’s blue eyes become watery. She is Antoinietta Vaccaro, also known as Antoinette. The octogenarian is one of eight people who died in the collapse of several buildings on rue de Tivoli in Marseille. It was just a week ago. This Sunday, at noon, for eight long minutes, a hundred people fell silent, a few meters from the rubble, in the heart of the Camas district, in a collected, heavy silence, broken from time to time by the song of birds. . Eight children place flowers one by one. Then a round of applause runs through the boulevard Eugène-Pierre.
Near the makeshift mausoleum, Michel burst into tears: “I came first to be sure that it was her, the Antoinette I knew. I’ve been in the neighborhood a long time. She was the wife of a friend of mine. He was a craftsman, an excellent craftsman even. We used to see each other a lot and then we lost touch. But these are people who mark you. I came as a tribute, out of respect for past relationships. »
“These are people I have met”
It is often said of Marseille that it is not a city, but a conglomeration of 111 districts, with their identities, their characteristics, their inhabitants who all know each other and frequent each other. So, when eight inhabitants of the same street die, in terrible circumstances, a whole family cries, in unison, on this spring Sunday. “It’s a big village, this district, insists Nicole, who wanted to lay a bouquet in tribute to the eight dead. We meet, we meet. The victims, I don’t know them, but they are people I met. It remains a loss for all of us of part of what makes the soul of this neighborhood. We won’t forget. It is not possible. I constantly passed by there, in this street. Now I’m taking a big detour, because emotionally it’s very complicated. »
“Marseille is a city of neighborhoods, abounds Yolande. I came simply to tell these people that we are touched and that we are thinking of them. These accidents are things that can happen to anyone. “I am a medical student at La Timone, and it could have been students like me, in my college, says Emma. I also know people who were evacuated. So it was important to be there. »
“Why is the mayor not here? »
And, in the village of Camas, the emotion of the neighborhood is also mixed with anger. Because this gathering was organized neither by the town hall, nor by residents of the district or relatives of the families, some of whom nevertheless made the trip. “Why isn’t the mayor here?” “, Laurette annoys, come to meditate. The city councilor is indeed absent, on this Sunday noon, after having been in the front row all week. Only a member of Benoît Payan’s cabinet monitors what is happening, in the background.
The appeal was launched by an associative activist, known recently for her commitment against poor housing, Kaouther Ben Mohamed. His angry Marseille association was founded after the collapse of rue d’Aubagne in 2018, due to the unsanitary conditions of two buildings, in another district, that of Noailles. Former candidate for local elections, Kaouther Ben Mohamed is also today a regular columnist in the program The Big Mouths on RMC.
“They did not contact the families”
“The tragic collapse of 17 rue de Tivoli, on the night of Saturday April 8, which caused the death of eight people, revived the fear of rue d’Aubagne, she wrote in the press release announcing this gathering. On November 5, 2018, the collapse of 63 and 65 rue d’Aubagne was also the cause of the disappearance of eight innocent Marseillais. “In this same press release, the founder of Marseille en Colère claims to have taken this initiative after being contacted” by many Marseillais, residents, relatives, anonymous, former displaced persons, etc. “.
“I am dislodged from the rue de Tivoli, and I wanted to tell you that I was not aware of this gathering, plague a man on condition of anonymity. It’s beautiful. It is very good. But they did not contact the displaced persons. We don’t want to be equated with unfit housing. We’re talking about an explosion here. We are preparing a real tribute, on our side. »
According to our information, a collective is being set up and a meeting of this collective on the tribute to be paid is scheduled for Monday evening. For his part, the entourage of Benoît Payan specifies that the mayor of Marseille will go to the Vélodrome this Sunday evening, the time to participate in the stands in the minute of silence planned in memory of the victims of the rue de Tivoli before the match of OM against Troyes.