That was three years ago, almost to the day. The sun shone high, like these days, on the town hall of Marseille. In the heat of summer, the picture was beautiful. Arm in arm, the pillars of what is known as the Marseille Spring advanced, united, all smiles, towards this Bargemon area where a new mayor was to be elected, after a quarter of a century of reign of Jean-Claude Gaudin on the second city of France. In this case, it was one, a certain Michèle Rubirola, who had come to embody the change at the head of Marseille, with behind her a coalition of parties and members of civil society who had initiated this union under the name of Mad March. An ephemeral mayor, who will very quickly give way to his first deputy Benoît Payan.
Three years later, when half of the mandate has passed, the smiles are not necessarily appropriate, at the dawn of the municipal council which will be held this Friday. “The wind is blowing very hard and the ship is sometimes sailing in stormy waters, admits Pierre-Marie Ganozzi in a marine metaphor that some on the right will call understatement. There are periods that are easier than others, but you have to hold on. “Tensions with the President of the Republic, controversy around the Buzine… the thorny issues follow one another, like successive waves which come to fail on the majority in place.
“There is a lot of bitterness”
However, in these storms, how does the crew react? Since the start of the journey, the cast has changed, including among the deputies. With changes that are notorious to say the least, on the side of Mad Mars, which embodied in this coalition the promise of a movement in which civil society would have its full share. One of its founders, Olivia Fortin, handed over her delegation as deputy mayor of Marseille last April to take back her scarf as mayor of the sector, in order to put out the start of a fire. As reminded The worldthe former mayor that Olivia Fortin now replaces had resigned after the revelation of his previous professional dismissal due to inappropriate behavior against collaborators.
Two months later, at the beginning of June, another pillar of Mad Mars left Printemps Marseille. Former town planning assistant pushed out after controversies over her housing policy and her private life revealing a possible conflict of interest, Mathilde Chaboche recently joined the group of environmentalists. This group positions itself both as part of the majority and as being autonomous from Printemps Marseille. A choice that causes strong internal tensions. “I don’t see why she did that,” confided an assistant to the mayor. She could have returned her delegation and stopped there. But she went on a personal crusade. There is a lot of sourness. »
A dispersed majority
Within this plural and composite majority, the tensions indeed seem to create real fractures within the municipal council. “Mathilde Chaboche has been at open war against Samia Ghali for more than two years, believes the same deputy mayor. I think that too many people are thinking about the elections in three and a half years, when the task before us is immense. We cannot disperse in wars for more PS, more CP or more Samia Ghali. Everyone should stay focused on their mission. But some come out of the woods far too soon. “Our majority is made up of plural sensibilities, relativizes Fabien Perez, president of the environmental group in Marseille. It’s a real wealth, with debates and a mayor who arbitrates. That’s the rule. »
“The citizen dimension of Printemps Marseille is a mythology, tackles an ecologist member of the majority on condition of anonymity. Today, civil society has been integrated into a cartel of organizations. That’s Marseille Spring. In the end what is there? A lot of communists, socialists, ecologists, and civil society in it, it’s political fiction. »
“We feel real distension in them”
And to be proud “We were right posthumously, always boasts an environmentalist. We must accept that Printemps Marseille is a hollow monolith elected on the clearing wave. It was then responding to a real expectation on the issue of schools and housing. But what dominates today are brakes due to internal quarrels that are not arbitrated. ” “I sometimes do not win in arbitration, recognizes Pierre-Marie Ganozzi, deputy mayor in charge of the school plan. I can’t sleep at night and the next day I go ahead. »
Tensions that the opposition does not hesitate to put forward, while the right tries to display a new union after years of heartbreak. Thus, the city council last week would have started late according to the right because of internal debates in the majority on the relevance of observing or not a minute of silence in tribute to Nahel. “We feel real distensions at home, believes to know the president of the opposition group of the right, Catherine Pila. Benoît Payan knows that if he respects a minute’s silence, it will create tension among some of his deputies, and if he doesn’t, he knows that it will create tension among another part of his assistants. “And to predict:” Benoît Payan seeks a balance between one side and the other. And this balancing act will end up bringing him down. “It remains to be seen whether the union of the right displayed today will not also fracture over personal ambitions which will sharpen in the years to come…