Marseille has always been a little bit spooky but now it seems to be heading the way of the Mexican narcolands i.e. really bad. If interested in how bad the depravity can get we have on the blogroll at right a site by the bravest reporters on earth: Borderland Beat.
From Der Spiegel, February 27:
Almost 50 people have recently died in drug-related violence in Marseille – even as ever more people are moving there. The government is investing billions in the city, but can it still be saved?
From the police files on the victims of the 2023 drug war: Rayan, 23, found dead and burned in the trunk of a car. Mohamad, 18, shot to death in April in Cité du Mail. Hugo, 22, hit in the head by a bullet in June. Socayana, a 24-year-old university student, killed in September by a stray bullet.
It’s hard to say how Emmanuel Macron decided that Marseille was his favorite city. Not the more middle-class metropolis of Bordeaux, not mundane Cannes, but the colorful, loud and, in some quarters, extremely dangerous Mediterranean city is his choice. It is something the French president emphasizes every chance he gets.
The chances of being robbed in Marseille are twice as high as the countrywide average. The risk of violent attack is also much higher than elsewhere. In the 3rd Arrondissement of this city of 870,000, every second resident lives below the poverty line.
In the notorious quartiers nord, the poorer sections of town in the northern part of the city, there are schools where the classrooms are unheated, and teachers bring in their own private space heaters. In addition to fighting against the cold and for the republic’s secularist principles, they also have to battle the cockroaches that scuttle around on the floor beneath the students’ desks.
Where Does Macron's Love for Marseille Come From?
This is the city that Macron – the model pupil, intellectual and former Rothschild banker – has chosen as his favorite? Perhaps, says someone in his orbit who asks not to be identified, Macron’s weakness for Marseille is like that of a man who is always falling for a woman he will never be able to win over. Because she is so different from him.It is unclear when this love affair began. People say that Sabrina Agresti-Roubache, a native of Marseille and Macron’s new minister for urban affairs and citizenship, has something to do with it. The 46-year-old is from an immigrant family with roots in Algeria. She grew up with her five siblings in one of these housing developments on the outskirts of town that everyone here refers to as "cités." She met Macron and his wife at a dinner in 2016. Since then, she has been at Macron’s side on every one of his visits to Marseille – as a kind of mediator between two worlds.
The president isn’t the only one who has discovered an affinity for the Mediterranean city. Young Parisians in particular have been moving here since the end of the pandemic to take advantage of Marseille’s bluer skies, warmer temperatures and lower rents. Last year, the city saw growth of 8.2 percent, while Paris saw more people move out than move in.
It's almost as if an entire generation suddenly realized that France actually has a large city directly on the seaside, a place with pristine rocky coves and restaurants on the water serving grilled fish. The result has been a 5 percent increase in real estate prices, with the popular 13th Arrondissement seeing a 15 percent boost. Many of the newcomers are modern nomads: people with jobs in Paris who work from home in Marseille and can board a TGV to be in the capital in three hours....
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