The “emergency” bill for Mayotte, devastated by Cyclone Chido, will be presented to the Council of Ministers next week and not during the one planned for this Friday, but this will have “no impact” on its examination in Parliament, which resumes its activity on January 13, Matignon announced Thursday January 2. It is a question of “taking the time to continue consultation with the elected officials” of the archipelago, with whom the Minister of Overseas Manuel Valls spoke 24 hours more after the visit of Prime Minister François Bayrou on Monday, and to “verify certain elements of the bill”, the same source said.
This text should integrate several of the measures of the “Mayotte standing” plan presented by the head of government during his trip. François Bayrou had initially said that this text would be presented to the Council of Ministers on Friday, the first of 2025. For longer-term measures, the government is planning another draft “refoundation program law” for the archipelago. prepared and designed with the elected officials of Mayotte”, which will be “developed within three months”.
Electricity restored “to every home” by the end of January
François Bayrou notably promised to “prevent the reconstruction” of the shanty towns in Mayotte, destroyed by the cyclone, without specifying where their inhabitants – a third of the population – would be rehoused, and to restore electricity “in every home” in here at the end of January thanks to reinforcements of agents and generators. He also announced help from the army for the rehabilitation of water networks and the deployment of 200 Starlinks (satellite link systems from the American company SpaceX) to ensure emergency communications. He also intends to propose to the President of the Republic a “vigilance plan”, associating the army and the gendarmerie, to “monitor” educational establishments in the face of threats of fire and looting.
Faced with irregular immigration – the department has 320,000 inhabitants according to INSEE, but perhaps 100,000 to 200,000 more with undocumented immigrants – François Bayrou pleaded for a “general and precise census of the population “. Returning to land rights in Mayotte, already restricted in the archipelago, “is a question that must be asked,” he said. On the economic front, he notably announced the establishment in Mayotte of a “global free zone exempting (from taxes) all companies for a period of five years”.
Chido, the most devastating cyclone in Mayotte in 90 years, caused the death of at least 39 people on December 14 and left more than 5,600 injured, according to a report published last Sunday by the prefecture.