Overview
- Government spokesperson Maud Bregeon and Cities and Housing Minister Vincent Jeanbrun will attend Saturday’s white march in Marseille to signal state support for Mehdi Kessaci’s family.
- Numerous national figures plan to join, including Olivier Faure, Marine Tondelier, Manuel Bompard, Fabien Roussel, Raphaël Glucksmann, François Ruffin and Dominique de Villepin, while no RN or LR national leader had been announced as of Friday.
- Mehdi Kessaci, 20, was shot dead on 13 November by two men on a motorcycle, and investigators are exploring a possible intimidation crime linked to his brother Amine Kessaci’s anti-drug activism.
- Narcotrafficking has surged to the forefront of Marseille’s municipal campaign, with broad calls for unity and sharply divergent remedies spanning a proposed state of emergency and curfew for minors to legalization of cannabis and reinforced judicial police.
- Authorities have activated an anti-corruption cell and reiterated warnings about attempts by trafficking networks to influence the election, as the government rules out deploying the army in favor of police, gendarmerie and judicial tools.