France is in national mourning this Monday, December 23. Visiting Mayotte last week, after the devastating passage of Hurricane Chido, Emmanuel Macron announced this day, in solidarity with the island. For this day of “national mourning”, the Head of State announced that the flags would be at half-mast and that a minute of silence would be observed at midday, particularly in public services. He also called on the French, everywhere in the territory, to observe it.
“We all share the pain of the Mahorais,” he wrote on his X account on December 19. “Our flags will be at half-mast. All French people will be invited to pay their respects at 11 a.m.,” he added. The provisional toll from the natural disaster, facilitated by global warming, stands at 35 dead and around 2,500 injured, but the authorities, who fear a higher number of victims, have launched a research mission.
Dead presidents and victims of terrorism
The decision, taken by Emmanuel Macron by decree, is rare in France: it is only the tenth time that such a day has been organized under the Fifth Republic.
National mourning is “not a ceremony, unlike national tribute and national funerals”, indicates the site Public life. It is also not a public holiday. Until 2001, days of national mourning were only organized to pay tribute to the deceased presidents of the Republic, continues the Vie Publique site: such days were in fact decreed after the disappearances of Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou, François Mitterrand , Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Since the beginning of the 2000s, days of national mourning have also been declared following attacks: that of September 11, 2001 in New York, the attack against Charlie Hebdo in January 2015, the attacks of November 13, 2015 and the Nice attack of July 14, 2016.
The duration of this mourning is also set by the President. In the majority of cases, it only lasts one day, but it has happened that it extends over three days, as after the attacks in Paris and Nice. However, no legal text delimits precisely how these days must take place. It is up to the Prime Minister, in this case François Bayrou, to set the terms of national mourning. At a minimumflags are flown at half-mast on public buildings and buildings. A minute of silence may also be observed, if the Prime Minister requests it. The head of government can also decree the closure of administrations, courts, cultural venues and even the postponement of sporting events, but this has only happened very rarely.
As noted franceinfothis Monday marks the first time under the Fifth Republic that a day of national mourning has been declared to honor the victims of a climatic catastrophe. Before that, national mourning had only been organized once, after devastating floods in the south of France in 1930. They left around a hundred dead.