Thanks, that seems to do the trick
<tal:statusmsg tal:define="messages view/messages"
tal:repeat="message messages">
<div tal:define="mtype message/type | nothing;
message message/message | nothing;"
tal:attributes="class string:portalMessage ${mtype};">
<strong
i18n:domain="plone"
i18n:translate="" tal:content="python:mtype.capitalize()">Info</strong>
<span class="content"
tal:replace="structure message">
The status message.
</span>
</div>
</tal:statusmsg>
Maybe this should be default ?
A note: The (original) <span> has a class of 'content', that has no use (?) since tal:replace replaces the whole span