
After a one-day visit at the head of a large ministerial delegation, the Prime Minister presented his "Mayotte debout" plan to the archipelago's Departmental Council, which "has a single guiding principle: no sentences, concrete and precise decisions, concrete and precise commitments."
Caught up in a controversy over his presence at the Pau City Council two days after the cyclone and three days after his appointment to Matignon, faced with the impatience and anger of residents and representatives of the island over the slowness of the relief efforts, Mr. Bayrou listed several dozen measures on numerous themes, including education, health, water and electricity supplies, and support for the local economy.
Measures which are "undeniably going in the right direction", reacted the leader of the RN deputies Marine Le Pen on X, hoping that "the hopes of the Mahorais are not betrayed again".
In parallel with the measures, an "emergency law" will be presented on Friday in the Council of Ministers, with "a presentation to Parliament within fifteen days", announced Mr. Bayrou. A draft "program law for the refoundation" of the archipelago "prepared and designed with the elected representatives of Mayotte, will be finalized within three months, he specified.
Among the key provisions detailed on Monday, the commitment of the State and local public authorities to "prohibit and prevent the reconstruction of shanty towns", taking up a mantra of Emmanuel Macron, who visited the site on December 19 and 20.
A desire that could be "written into law", while approximately a third of the population of this poorest department in France lives in precarious housing, completely destroyed.
Faced with the emergency of an archipelago still partly deprived of essential services, Mr. Bayrou asked that electricity be "restored in each home at the end of January", thanks to "a reinforcement of 200 agents" and the arrival of "200 generators, around ten per commune" to operate "essential equipment".
According to EDF, a total of 51,6% of customers had their electricity restored as of December 29.
"Before the end of the week, the volume of drinking water production obtained before Chido will be reached," promised the head of government.
He also announced the launch of a "vigilance plan" in Mayotte involving the army and the gendarmerie to "monitor" schools against threats of fire and looting. The mayor of Mamoudzou had just, in a session, denounced that on Monday "a school of the Republic" had been burned down, which had been transformed into an accommodation center for the past two weeks.
Faced with irregular immigration - the department has 320.000 inhabitants according to INSEE, but perhaps 100.000 to 200.000 more with undocumented immigrants - Mr. Bayrou called for a "general and precise census of the population".
A "truth operation that will allow us to get out of the ambiguities and inconsistencies that many elected officials have reported on the numerical assessment of the population", he argued, while earlier in the day he had considered it "irresponsible" to claim "that there is not a burning immigration problem in Mayotte".
On the economic front, Mr. Bayrou indicated that social security contributions would be suspended "for all companies until March 31." Compensation for loss of turnover, or loan facilities are also planned.
Goal: two years
"It is not just about rebuilding Mayotte as it was. It is about designing the future of Mayotte, different," explained Mr. Bayrou during the day, who repeated his "objective" of rebuilding Mayotte in two years.
Accompanied by five ministers, including Ministers of State Elisabeth Borne (Education) and Manuel Valls (Overseas), François Bayrou visited the Petite Terre water desalination plant, a field hospital, a school where several classrooms were devastated, before holding numerous meetings with the island's key players and elected officials.
The delegation also encountered the despair of the residents, as seen in this sequence in which Ms. Borne is challenged by two teachers who testify to the difficulties of daily life. "Ok," Ms. Borne replies to them before leaving the premises, her attitude having been widely criticized on social networks.
"A terrible image. A minister cannot turn her back and disregard the testimony of teachers who are warning about the health situation," grumbled the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure.
Chido, the most devastating cyclone in Mayotte in 90 years, caused the death of 14 people and left more than 39 injured on December 5.600, according to a report published Sunday by the prefecture.
Regarding the death toll, Mr Bayrou called on Monday for "great caution", stating that the "rumours of thousands of deaths" were "unfounded".
After Mayotte, Mr Bayrou will travel to the island of Réunion, an important logistical base for aid to the Mahoran archipelago, where he will continue his visit on Tuesday morning before returning to mainland France.
"In the south, in the north, we are the forgotten ones of this territory. They (the highest political leaders) always remain in Mamoudzou," laments a resident, Marachi Maoulida, "disappointed" by this one-day prime ministerial visit but who wants to remain "optimistic."