Minutes before the meeting dedicated to drug trafficking, Bouches-du-Rhône was given a new prefect. This Tuesday, November 18, the President of the Republic appointed Jacques Witkowski as prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The former policeman replaces Georges-François Leclerc, who was appointed as Emmanuel Macron’s chief of staff on October 30. Jacques Witkowski had until then served as prefect of the Bas-Rhin and Grand Est regions.
Before joining Alsace, Jacques Witkowski was Hérault’s then prefect at Seine-Saint-Denis. Before his career in the prefecture, the man was a gendarmerie officer who commanded a platoon in Martinique, then a company in the Vendée before being appointed military commander of Matignon when Alain Juppé was Prime Minister. “An experienced senior gendarmerie officer and senior civil servant, I am confident in his ability to intensify the relentless fight against drug trafficking.», comments Martine Vassal, president (DVD) of metropolitan municipalities and their departments Marseillaise.
This appointment took place as part of a summit at the Elysée. The agenda: “implementation” and it “the rise of the legal power of drug trafficking”, as well as points specifically aimed at “with the situation in Marseille”.
The morning’s discussion brought together Emmanuel Macron and his Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, as well as ministers Gérald Darmanin (Justice), Laurent Nuñez (Interior), Jean-Noël Barrot (Foreign Affairs) and Amélie de Montchalin (Public Accounts), as well as Nicolas Bessone, Marseille’s public prosecutor.
This summit was convened by the head of state just days after the assassination of Mehdi Kessaci. Thursday, November 13, the younger brother of activist Amine Kessaci was shot dead in broad daylight in the 4th arrondissement of Marseille.
According to prosecutors, who opened the investigation, it could have been a murder“warning” targeting the families of activists opposing drug trafficking. Mehdi Kessaci’s funeral will be held this afternoon in Marseille, without the presence of the press, the family said, detailing that a white parade will be held next weekend.
