French ministers rush to crime-infested Marseilles
Another fatality in Old Port area; reinforcements to be sent
General view of the old port of Marseille, southern France
(ANSAmed) - PARIS - For the past five years Marseilles has been ever more in the grip of a crime wave: the ''northern quarters'' in flames, the Old Port with its nightly settling of scores, adolescents high on drugs, dealers everywhere and shopkeepers prey to racketeering.
After the latest murder Monday evening, the French government rushed to announce that more police reinforcements would be sent immediately. Unfortunately, the announcement of Interior Minister Manuel Valls's flying visit to the city was made before that of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's. Four other ministers joined them shortly thereafter. Thirteen people have died since the beginning of the year in gang warfare. August has been marked by violent scuffles, injuries and widespread violence. A nurse was attacked on Sunday in a hospital, while a 25-year-old man was riddled with bullets Monday evening after a violent scuffle. Minister Valls, who has been actively trying to reduce the criminality of France's second largest city for the past few months, called the city's crime rates ''shocking''. It was not a ''visit of compassion or circumstance'', said Ayrault, who led a delegation of ministers to Marseilles: Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, Social Affairs and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, Territorial and Housing Equality Minister Cecile Duflot and Deputy Minister for the Disabled Marie-Arlette Carlotti. The government officials were followed by a flock of journalists. Ayrault's first stop was the hospital where the nurse was injured on Sunday by a criminal gang that demanded treatment, no questions asked, after stabbing a man to death shortly before.
The prime minister met with emergency room workers in the healthcare facility, while the injured man stayed home after the injury.
''I would like to note,'' Ayrault said, in announcing an extraordinary meeting Wednesday in Paris,''that the government has worked with determination to defeat the violence, delinquency and criminality in Marseilles.'' Marseille residents may have been less impressed by these words than the announcement that 24 extra policemen would be sent, along with a riot police unit.
The visit betrayed visible tension between the authorities, and not only between local and central ones. Right-wing mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin (UMP) did not even come to the meeting with the ministers in the prefect's office after Valls criticised his work. Valls is at the center of controversy in the government after his statements Monday at the presidential palace, when he shocked many of his colleagues by calling for fundamental reform of laws on immigration from Africa, especially as concerns regrouping family members of immigrants who obtain legal residency. The minister was accused of having been ''contaminated by Le Pen'' by Left Front leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, and was criticised by the heads of 'social' ministries and Justice Minister Taubira, who has long held diametrically opposed positions to those of Interior Minister Valls.
After the latest murder Monday evening, the French government rushed to announce that more police reinforcements would be sent immediately. Unfortunately, the announcement of Interior Minister Manuel Valls's flying visit to the city was made before that of Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's. Four other ministers joined them shortly thereafter. Thirteen people have died since the beginning of the year in gang warfare. August has been marked by violent scuffles, injuries and widespread violence. A nurse was attacked on Sunday in a hospital, while a 25-year-old man was riddled with bullets Monday evening after a violent scuffle. Minister Valls, who has been actively trying to reduce the criminality of France's second largest city for the past few months, called the city's crime rates ''shocking''. It was not a ''visit of compassion or circumstance'', said Ayrault, who led a delegation of ministers to Marseilles: Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, Social Affairs and Health Minister Marisol Touraine, Territorial and Housing Equality Minister Cecile Duflot and Deputy Minister for the Disabled Marie-Arlette Carlotti. The government officials were followed by a flock of journalists. Ayrault's first stop was the hospital where the nurse was injured on Sunday by a criminal gang that demanded treatment, no questions asked, after stabbing a man to death shortly before.
The prime minister met with emergency room workers in the healthcare facility, while the injured man stayed home after the injury.
''I would like to note,'' Ayrault said, in announcing an extraordinary meeting Wednesday in Paris,''that the government has worked with determination to defeat the violence, delinquency and criminality in Marseilles.'' Marseille residents may have been less impressed by these words than the announcement that 24 extra policemen would be sent, along with a riot police unit.
The visit betrayed visible tension between the authorities, and not only between local and central ones. Right-wing mayor Jean-Claude Gaudin (UMP) did not even come to the meeting with the ministers in the prefect's office after Valls criticised his work. Valls is at the center of controversy in the government after his statements Monday at the presidential palace, when he shocked many of his colleagues by calling for fundamental reform of laws on immigration from Africa, especially as concerns regrouping family members of immigrants who obtain legal residency. The minister was accused of having been ''contaminated by Le Pen'' by Left Front leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, and was criticised by the heads of 'social' ministries and Justice Minister Taubira, who has long held diametrically opposed positions to those of Interior Minister Valls.
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