The French president, Emmanuel Macron, made a surprise trip to Marseille this Tuesday to support the police during a gigantic operation against drug trafficking, of a magnitude never seen before. After landing at the airport, Macron headed to a particularly problematic northern suburb, La Castellane, where the Ministers of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, as well as the Marseille mayor, Benoît Payan, were waiting for him. .
For several weeks, the mobilization of some 4,000 agents in the Marseille area is planned to “restore order,” according to the president himself. The police offensive, dubbed “Plaza Clean XXL”, has become inevitable given the deterioration of the situation in recent years. In 2023 there were 49 deaths directly linked to drug trafficking and 4 collateral victims, the majority due to settling scores between rival gangs. Those killed in the shootings tended to be very young, some minors.
In La Castellane, the city where Zinedine Zidane, one of the greatest French soccer stars of all time, grew up, Macron spoke spontaneously with its inhabitants. A young man respectfully asked the president if he had come “to intimidate.” He then questioned him very critically about the French position regarding the Gaza war. The exchange lasted several minutes until the head of state, tired of arguing and defending what he considers a balanced position in the face of the conflict, chose to walk away.
Macron has a personal soft spot for the city of Marseille, the second most populous in France after Paris. He recognizes that she is his favorite and has played a very important role in his electoral campaigns. He also really likes Naples. “I love tragic Mediterranean cities,” he once said.
Since 2021, the State has renewed the economic effort in investments in Marseille and the department of Bouches-du-Rhône to improve the social environment that fuels crime. There have been many actions to improve schools, transportation and housing, in addition to purely police actions whose results are not evident.
The northern suburbs of Marseille – but also some very central neighborhoods – are an example of a very serious social problem that has spread to many other cities, such as Grenoble, Montpellier, Lyon, Toulouse and Perpignan. There are practically no French urban agglomerations that today escape crime and, in many cases, the phenomenon of radicalization of the Muslim population of immigrant origin. The problem invades even rural areas that were previously safe.
