Meeting the Mayor

The other day I found a flyer in my postbox inviting me to the opening of the square Moro-Giafferi in the presence of the mayor of the 14th arrondissement. The square has been undergoing a make-over which I have been following close-up as I pass there every morning on my way to work.  Before it was not really a square but a narrow space between three streets where a public toilet and a bus stop had been squeezed in.

I have never met the mayor of the area where I live, so I thought that I would pass by and eventually ask him a few questions about the renovations: why is there only one bank on which to sit, where has the public toilet gone, where are the bins, and where can I park my bicycle?

The only French mayors that I have heard of are the grande geule Jean-Claude Gaudin in Marseille, the good looking Christian Estrosi in Nice, gay Bertrand Delanoe in Paris and petit Nicolas Sakozy (formerly) in Neuilly-sur-Seine. If I had expected a similar spectacular mayor of the 14th arr., I would have been disappointed because Pascal Cherki, 46 years old and a member of the Partie Socialiste (link), wanted to show that he was one of us. He was wearing old-fashioned, baggy jeans, solid shoes and a non-descript black duffel coat. I suppose that I had expected him to wear a band across his chest with some kind of sign that he was the major...

The mayor thanked his team and also the representatives of the CIQ for their participation in the project. A CIQ (Conseil du Quartier) is the link between the citizens and the elected politicians and was voted by law in 2002 for towns with more than 80,000 inhabitants. There are six CIQ in the 14th arr. where the total population reaches about 134,000. The CIQ in my area organises a film club at the Entrepôt and a monthly book exchange (link). 

I had heard about the CIQ in my area in Marseille, but my neighbour had said that it was controlled by the Corsican mafia (which does not have to be taken literally). My area in Marseille has a lot of inhabitants of Corsican origin, and when one refers to Corsican people, especially to women, one thinks of fake blond women with jewellery and 4x4 cars who behave badly and get into the occasional physical fight. Oh, yes! I am not sure that this is the way that Parisians behave.

It was perhaps appropriate that the mayor, who is a lawyer, inaugurated the square Moro-Giafferi. Vincent de Moro-Giafferi was a lawyer who defended small time criminals but also the last French serial killer to be executed in public and one of the alleged authors of the Reichstag fire in 1933. Apparently he attacked Göring who later tried to get him arrested by the Gestapo. He was one of the big criminal lawyers of his time, as I understand it.  (link) Since 1971 the square bears his name, but I wonder if anybody who passes the square has got any idea of what is behind that Italian-sounding double-name.

 

Back to this cold Saturday morning where the speaches did not last long, and where people threw themselves at the buffet with wine, coke, fanta, pizza, sandwich, cake and delicious North African patisserie donated by the local shops whilst talking to each other and to the public representatives. A woman with a red beret was singing like Edit Piaf whilst children were dancing. I noted an old women who was speaking to the mayor, who, however, paid more attention to his iPhone than to this granny wearing a pink woolly hat. So much for wearing old, baggy jeans and being one of us.... Let's admit it, after a certain time even the most idealist politician becomes a professional who makes politics for his living, and inaugurating a square on Saturday morning is part of the job.