Macron’s infrastructure package: billions against Marseille’s drug gangs

President Macron travels to Marseille with billions in his luggage: Infrastructure aid should give the city prospects in which drug gangs fight. In the La Castellane district, many have written off the state.

In front of the passage that leads to the high-rise estate in La Castellane, a young man sits on a battered office chair in the sun: heavy stomach, T-shirt, he clicks through Tiktok videos and introduces himself as a “scout”. When asked what a scout is doing in the neighborhood, he says: “You start at ten o’clock in the morning and work until one o’clock in the morning. My colleague comes along.”

His colleague – hooded jacket, black fanny pack around the hips – seems to be higher in the hierarchy. He is the vendeur, the seller. A seller earns around 150 euros a day. A car pulls up, a young woman wants to buy hashish. The seller jumps up, reaches behind a wall and pulls a large, transparent plastic sack with a slide fastener out of the bushes: bundles of grass and hashish bars packed in bags. The customer holds a ten-euro note out of the window. The salesman reaches into his hip pocket and stows the note with the other big money packs.

Selling drugs as if they were soft drinks

The police say that each of these 156 points of sale in Marseille brings in 10,000 to 60,000 euros – per day. Black arrows on the house walls show the way to the drug. The prices are also drawn on here: one gram, two grams, ten, 20, 30 euros. Clearly visible, as if it were cola or soda.

The drug in Marseille is a big business and a hotly contested one. There have been 13 deadly reprisals between rival drug gangs since June alone. The youngest victim was 14 years old – hit by Kalashnikov cartridges. “You arrest a high animal of the drug gangs, and immediately dozens want to take your place,” says Rudy Manee, spokesman for the largest police union “Alliance”. “These are guys who are really ready for anything, even burn people alive.” They call this method “barbecue”.

Police only move out in strength

The fatal accounts of the gangs between which war is raging are paradoxically a consequence of the interior minister’s police strategy: the so-called harcellement – constant fire against the dealers. This causes unrest and leads to bloody power and territorial struggles between the gangs. The additional funds promised by the president as part of his “Marseille en grand” plan are of no use, says Manaa: The plan is superficially nice for the police. “New cars, new cameras, more staff, two new commissioners. All I can say is: Bravo, Mr. President! But what kind of solution did he actually offer? Absolutely none.”

Justice is a sticking point. The courts are hopelessly understaffed, work far too slowly and have come away empty-handed with the latest plan. It usually takes two to three years from arrest to judgment. A powerful state looks different. And so the northern slums of Marseille remain firmly in the grip of drug gangs.

“As the police, we can still get in everywhere, but at what price?” Says Manaa. “If we want to go into a settlement, we have to do it with two, three or even four police cars. In 99 percent of the cases you get stones and Molotov cocktails. If, fortunately, nobody gets injured, at least the cars will be damaged.”

Neither doctors nor subway connections for La Castellane

Soccer star Zinedine Zidane grew up in the La Castellane district of Marseille – and the students Jade and Evine, who attend a special class for particularly motivated students across from the settlement, have big plans for their lives: Jade wants to become a surgeon, Evine a police officer.

“Our guiding principle is that these children have little access to culture in their environment. So we try to give them a basis,” explains school principal Eric Brundu. “It’s just a thin coat of paint, but it will allow you to say, ‘Hey yes, I’ve heard of Beethoven before, I’ve even been to the Marseille Opera House. Wagner? I know!’ So our ambition is modest, but we want to open the door to them. ”

Think bigger than their own neighborhood, from which many young people never get out – and whose living conditions are harsh: “The nights are hard here. Constant noise, screaming, the car races, fireworks – there is a lack of everything in these neighborhoods,” says Brundu . “There are no paediatricians, no ophthalmologists. Everything that can be found in a normal environment is missing here. There is a double problem of poverty. People have no money and no public infrastructure.”

Macron’s billions are supposed to make the city chic

Whether Jade and Evine will realize their dreams also depends on whether the elected city officials put an end to the decades-long clientele policy. Because instead of finally building a subway line from the northern quarters to the city center, the long-time conservative mayor, Jean-Claude Gaudin, preferred to make the port chic.

Now everything should be different. President Emmanuel Macron discovered the Mediterranean metropolis as an election campaign topic: he promised 1.5 billion euros for housing and infrastructure back in September. Now the president is traveling to town one more time. He will negotiate with the new socialist mayor Benoit Payan for an additional sum of 1.2 billion euros: It should benefit the completely run-down schools – and girls like Jade.