“We can strengthen our cultural relations”: the representative of El Jadida visited Sète as part of the twinning

Youssef El Zahidi sur le Cadre royal. Midi Libre – KELMAN MARTI

Le mercredi 28 février dernier, Youssef El Zahidi, représentant et élu municipal d'El Jadida, est arrivé à Sète dans le cadre du jumelage entre les deux villes afin de visiter l'Île singulière et de renforcer les liens. 

For a month, the Moroccan painter Belyasmine El Mostapha was in artistic residence in Sète to work on the exhibition “Regard jdidi". For your part, you arrived on Wednesday, what was the welcome like ?

I would like to underline the very good fraternal welcome that was given to us by the City and the Sète twinning committee. They prepared a tailor-made program for me that meets my visit intentions.

A busy schedule

Between Wednesday and Saturday, he, who is also president of the CCI of El Jadida and president of the commission in charge of twinning, made a complete visit to the unique island under the aegis of the committee sétois and the town hall."I went to the Paul Bousquet high school, which trains à incredible diversity of seafaring professions. Ça m'a ébloui, first tells Youssef El Zahidi. Then, I wasé received çu à Ifremer. The director gave us a demonstration of all of the structure's missions, whether scientific, environmental, national or international. With the municipal teams and the committee, we have also been involved in this process. at the Moroccan Consulate. The consul underlined that the impact of our twinning on international relations. Then, there was the opening of the Belyasmine exhibition…", before the departure of the municipal representative of El Jadida from Sète, Saturday.

Why was it important for you, representative of El Jadida, to travel to the unique island ?

I needed to discover Belyasmine's work and also to see Sète for the first time in my life. My visit is an opportunity to strengthen cultural relations and establish partnerships that are much more beneficial on the environmental and entrepreneurial levels. This is possible, because the city has several structures interested in the marine environment, and this is also our case in El Jadida. 

More precisely, what partnerships are we talking about ?

The twinning can take on a greater scale, if we associate cultural and social exchanges with those from universities, especially in the maritime field. We discussed possible school exchanges with the director of the Lycée de la Mer during our meeting. Links can also be strengthened with Ifremer. We have maritime wealth of great value in common. We can help each other to discover their added value, improve food consumption or as economic leverage for our young entrepreneurs.

At the same time, there is currently a cultural exchange with Belyasmine El Mosatapha in Sète…

His artistic residency offered by the town hall is a success. We must thank the City and the twinning committee for putting our artist at ease. Belyasmine is a very calm and talented artist. His work is significant for someone who discovered Sète for the first time.

Also read: Twinning between Sète and El Jadida: Belyasmine El Mostapha, the Moroccan painter will soon present his works

… and the gastronomic exchange is developing.

It's true! Last year, two Jdidis chefs came to Sète for a comparative culinary competition where they cooked sea bream with two Sète restaurateurs. In September 2024, we hope to welcome two chefs from here and Jean-Pierre Conesa, municipal elected official and former tielliste, for a new competition, this time, for preparing tielles. I think that this purely Sète dish is exportable as part of the twinning and can become anchored in Jdidi cuisine. The population can discover this easy and quick dish to make based on octopus, an octopod frequently caught on our coast.

Also read: Soon a Moroccan tie ? The twinning committee and the City of Sète want to "discover" in El Jadida

Is Sète a source of inspiration for El Jadida ?

Yes. Sète is a very beautiful city, clean, attractive, with pretty architecture, and the inhabitants are disciplined and wise. There is a perfectly thought-out organization, particularly from a traffic point of view. We can exploit the experience of my coming to Sète to restore value to our Moroccan cities and to El Jadida, which is a tourist and historical reference. Our city can, in addition, easily respond to improvements.

I subscribe to read more