Emmanuel Macron in Mayotte, still affected by Cyclone Chido

The Head of State, accompanied by his wife Brigitte, landed at 08:15 a.m. local time (07:15 a.m. Paris time) in Mamoudzou, the departmental capital, for the first leg of a five-day tour of the Indian Ocean (Mayotte, Réunion, Madagascar and Mauritius).

"I want to pay tribute to the strength of resistance of the entire Mahoran people," the president told reporters shortly after getting off the plane.

"We responded to the extreme emergency. Now, I'm here to assess what's been done well and what's not been done well enough, to give it a boost," he added. He is accompanied by Overseas Minister Manuel Valls, Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard, Health Minister Yannick Neuder, and Francophonie Minister Thani Mohamed-Soilihi.

The president arrives with a draft law for the "rebuilding" of the archipelago, which aims to strengthen the fight against illegal immigration, illegal housing, insecurity and to support the local economy.

This text, eagerly awaited for several years by elected officials in Mayotte, will be ratified in the evening by a special Council of Ministers that the Head of State will chair via videoconference from the plane that will then take him from Mayotte to Reunion.

"We will not solve all the problems with a single text," he acknowledged on Monday, but "mobilization beyond the emergency phase is needed to resolve the fundamental problems" facing the archipelago, particularly the migratory challenge from the Comoros.

For around ten hours, Emmanuel Macron will meet with the population and representatives of the agricultural sector before speaking with elected officials from Mayotte.

"We're fed up"

Four months after the cyclone that killed 40 people and caused €3,5 billion in damage, he risks finding himself facing the same frustrations as in December, while the challenges of reconstruction remain colossal.

Water, electricity, and telecommunications networks have been urgently restored. But the Mahorais are waiting for major construction projects to begin.

Parliament did indeed adopt an emergency law in February that provides for relaxations in urban planning regulations and tax breaks to boost reconstruction.

But between a lack of funding, laborious coordination, and a shortage of materials, the process stalled. And the makeshift tin dwellings reappeared as quickly as they had been blown away.

Around a third of the population, or more than 100.000 inhabitants, including people in an irregular situation from the Comoros, live in precarious housing.

"We're all fed up," says Alexandre Grau, who lost his home in Tsingoni. "Everything is moving very slowly," confirms Julian Champiat, president of the Mayotte Construction Federation.

"In the shit!"

Mayotte, where Marine Le Pen achieved one of her best scores in the 2022 presidential election (59% in the second round), also remains a major political issue.

"The Mahorais can no longer wait: the State must urgently come to the aid of this French territory!" the RN insisted on X before the presidential visit.

In December, the head of state was irritated by the criticism.

"If it wasn't France, you'd be 10.000 times more in the shit!" he raged in front of young people and mothers who accused him of "talking nonsense."

He then assured that he wanted to "strengthen the fight against illegal immigration" by increasing, to almost double, the number of deportations, which was 24.500 in 2023.

The bill provides for tougher conditions for obtaining a residence permit in the archipelago as well as an extension of assistance for voluntary return.

It also intends to facilitate the evacuation of unsanitary housing in shanty towns and the seizure of weapons in a department with rampant insecurity.

Mayotte, where the unemployment rate reached 37% and the standard of living remained seven times lower than elsewhere in France before Chido, is to become a global free trade zone, with 100% tax breaks.

The bill also provides for the alignment of social rights and working conditions with those in mainland France. Social minimums, such as the RSA (Responsible Social Security), are currently 50% lower.