“There is no dangerous school in Marseille, assures Pierre-Marie Ganozzi. I put the question to the firefighters, and they told me no, that there were only things to improve. The sentence slams in the small playground of this school in downtown Marseille, the scene of a rather special press conference. A year after his election, the deputy mayor in charge of the school plan and school buildings tried to put an end to the long-standing controversies over the dilapidated state of Marseille schools, also the main campaign axis of the left during of the last municipal ones.
According to the deputy mayor, since January, a meeting every two months has been organized between the departments of risk prevention, construction and marine firefighters to “take stock school by school”. At the end of these meetings, the marine firefighters provided a list of eight schools presenting significant risks. “For example, we had fire alarms that were not sufficiently audible,” explains Pierre-Marie Ganozzi. We also had fire doors that no longer cut the fire. But there was no work that required 500,000 euros … “
While waiting for Emmanuel Macron
In one year, according to Pierre-Marie Ganozzi, half of the negative security advisories have been lifted. “We still have about fifty to deal with,” says the deputy mayor. Many negative opinions are issued because we lack the documents to justify the performance of certain work. “This summer, according to our information, nearly 200 Marseille schools should experience work, for a total amount of approximately 3.5 million euros.
All before any announcements from the President of the Republic. For several months, the mayor of Marseille and his deputies have indeed hinted at a boost from the state to the city of Marseille for the renovation of its schools. “On this subject I am reasonably confident, to put it mildly,” says Pierre-Marie Ganozzi. In particular, a visit is expected for the start of the school year.