A visit scheduled since 2018, the exact date of which was unknown. This Thursday, January 23, 2025, President Emmanuel Macron will travel to the Nord department to provide a progress update on the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache (SAT) pact, signed in 2018.
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A one-day visit, straddling two departments. Since his election as head of state in 2017, Emmanuel Macron has visited the border sector of Sambre-Avesnois and Thiérache twice. A first time on November 7, 2018, for the signing of the pact for the success of Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache (SAT). A second four years later, on November 19, 2021, to note the progress linked to the pact and sign the second part of the SAT.
As planned since the creation of the project, a third visit by the Head of State was scheduled. Six years after the launch of the Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache pact, Emmanuel Macron will therefore travel to the region this Thursday, January 23, in order to lead a new milestone. According to the Élysée, no precise program has yet been decided, it is still unknown where the Head of State will go during this new meeting with the north of the region.
-A particularly scrutinized official visit, the French President rarely travels to our territory. His last visit to Nord-Pas-de-Calais dates back to November 14, 2023 during the historic and deadly floods which hit the territory.
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The Sambre-Avesnois-Thiérache pact, a battlehorse defended by Emmanuel Macron since his election, is a partnership between the State and 311 municipalities in Avesnois and northern Aisne. A territory of more than 300,000 inhabitants, where 23% of the population still lived below the poverty line in 2018.
An alarming observation, which led to the creation of the SAT, a project in which the French State invested 294 million euros in order to develop these two territories with obvious socio-economic difficulties. The first part was particularly focused on fundamental subjects such as mobility or infrastructure: widening of the RN2 into two two lanes between Avesnes-sur-Helpe and Laon, reopening of the Sambre to Oise canal to navigation, extension of cycle paths, construction of the new Maubeuge hospital delivered in 2021… The second act of the SAT mainly focused on development of public services and the continuation of the actions undertaken in the first part of the pact, such as the creation of a new police station in Aulnoye-Aymeries or an administrative city in Avesnes-sur-Helpe.
For several years, a third pact has been under consideration between local authorities and the State. But the rumor is only at the draft stage. The Élysée indicates that Emmanuel Macron will not travel to the north on Thursday to announce a third stage of the SAT.