It takes a little patience, in Marseille, before reaching eternal rest. Difficult indeed to find a place in a cemetery. “To say that it is complicated? It’s an understatement, ”smiles Christine, employee of Accueil funéraire, a funeral service in the 15th arrondissement, in the northern districts. “There’s no room anywhere, people can’t buy concessions anymore unless they get on the waiting list. It’s difficult for the families, we have the impression of taking them hostage…”, she says. Above all, places are lacking where people die the most. “In the 15th arrondissement, you can no longer be buried there, you have to go to Valentine or Saint-Pierre,” she continues. Two quite distant neighborhoods… and more well-to-do. A situation that led Christine to be the driver herself, out of respect for “an 85-year-old grandmother who, otherwise, had to take two buses and then walk to visit her husband”. And for lack of concessions, the families of the deceased “fall back on a cellar, in the cathedrals of silence”, these walls in which are housed funerary cells.
In Marseille, around 10,000 people die each year, according to the town hall. Among them, a good third is cremated, but the few places “are quickly occupied”, explains Hattab Fadhla, municipal councilor in charge of cemeteries. And the health crisis has not helped. “There have been a lot of deaths”, completes the chosen one. Aware of this problem of places where our relatives and elders can rest, the town hall has embarked on various expansion operations. A plot of land was recently preempted at Les Trois Lucs, in the 12th arrondissement. Another in Aygalades, north of the city, should see the creation of 1,000 places. With multi-confessional spaces and other dedicated ones. “We have created a Muslim square with 147 concessions in Saint-Marthe (14th), assures Hattab Fadhla. A 300-seat Israelite in Vaudrans (12th). We are in the process of solving the problem”. And to consider “that nothing had been anticipated [par l’ancienne municipalité] “.
Towards the end of perpetual concessions?
To recover more concessions than the 300 that expire each year, the city is also considering a change in regulations: to end some of the 3,000 perpetual concessions. “This would make it possible to recover those which are no longer maintained and whose families no longer have descendants. Instead, we would keep the system of concessions for 15, 30 or 50 years, and make them renewable. This operation would allow “a major cleaning” of the cemeteries, pointed out as being “dirty and poorly maintained”, by our professional in the sector. Some “Common Lands”, these temporary spaces where the deceased are buried before joining the ossuaries after five years, will also be offered to families in concessions. “For a thirty-year-old, it takes about 5,000 euros,” says Christine. And meanwhile, to be buried in Marseille, you have to jostle.