“The president trusts in the spirit of responsibility which animates the elected representatives of the territory, to work together on solutions to improve the daily life of Marseillaise and Marseillais. “The message from the Elysee Palace, questioned this Wednesday by 20 minutes, contrasts with the scenes of tension which are multiplying in recent days between the socialist mayor of Marseille Benoît Payan, and the LR president of the metropolis and her municipal opponent Martine Vassal.
This Tuesday, what was to be a territorial council like any other turned into a rat race between left and right. At the turn of a disagreement on a simple pontoon at the ferry terminal in the Estaque district, Benoît Payan’s running mate simply left the hemicycle, resulting in the premature end of the session. For his part, while the elected officials had just left, the leader of the majority right-wing group and district councilor of Marseille Jean-Baptiste Rivoallan claimed “to have been accused of fascists by two elected officials [de la gauche marseillaise], including a colored man (sic). “There followed stormy explanations between the various elected officials, on the forecourt of the metropolis.
Stormy discussions between the LR elected representatives of the territorial council and the elected representatives of the Marseille spring. The territorial council was interrupted after the departure of elected officials from the left on a report on transport. pic.twitter.com/ZKyRdUYeOv
– Mathilde Ceilles (@MathildeCeilles) October 5, 2021
“He will see how things go”
An incident that occurs a week before the visit of the President of the Republic, who had conditioned the granting of financial assistance from the State to an agreement between the metropolis and the city of Marseille. “We had undoubtedly underestimated the divisions so far, affirmed from the Pharo Emmanuel Macron. If public action is still divided and local chicayas block the advance, these billions never reach the ground. […] It is the fault of a collective action which cannot be organized and done. “And to launch that, according to him,” the problem in Marseilles “was in the” great difficulty to define what is the general interest of the city as of the metropolis “.
“The president remains focused on the success of his plan proposed in Marseille and careful that this plan is part of a partnership approach, for the benefit of Marseillaises and Marseillais, said the entourage of Emmanuel Macron. He will see on his next imminent visit how things are going. »A wish that today seems pious. On the left as on the right, we agree on only one point: despite the warnings of the President of the Republic, metropolis and town hall seem irreconcilable, against a backdrop of political rivalry and the sharing of powers that has become chaotic.
“We are in a deadlock situation”
“We are told that we want to work for the general interest, but we are facing a wall,” says Yannick Ohanessian, deputy mayor in charge of security known to be close to Benoît Payan. We have observed for a year that we have been in a deadlock situation. “
“The problem is that today, between us, nothing has been solved,” says Jean-Baptiste Rivoallan. We are working hard to find a solution that would allow us to grant us these credits which are vital not only for the city of Marseille but also for the metropolis. And I dare to hope that we will find an agreement between all to try to at least capture this windfall. I hope that the ego of certain politicians will not shatter on the rocks this money which is necessary for us. “
The mayor appeals to Macron
Sign of this impossibility to work together: in a letter sent to the President of the Republic and revealed by Provence this Wednesday, Benoît Payan calls for “an immediate reform of local governance”, in order to be able to take over certain skills of the metropolis, such as waste collection. Taking the example of the crisis in Marseille, the mayor, who points to “ineffective tangles of skills”, believes that the “status quo” is no longer tenable. “I can not leave the city in this state, plague the city councilor in the columns of the regional daily. The city is abandoned because in the metropolis, we play politics. “For her part, the president of the metropolis deplores the fact that, according to her,” the mayor of Marseille is doing his bit “. Atmosphere.
As master of the clocks, and despite the context, the Elysée does not seem to want to deviate from its initial battle plan. “The president has indeed been the recipient of a letter and we will answer it, as we do each time,” says one in the entourage of the President of the Republic. The issue of the transfer of skills between local elected officials is a real subject, and the president had given local elected officials two months to reflect and propose solutions. The deadline has not yet passed to find an agreement, and we remain on that schedule. “