After Emmanuel Macron, François Bayrou will in turn go to Mayotte. The Prime Minister will arrive early this Monday, December 30 on the archipelago devastated by Cyclone Chido, AFP learned from Matignon. The head of government will be accompanied by Ministers of State Elisabeth Borne (National Education) and Manuel Valls (Overseas) and Ministers Valérie Létard (Housing), Yannick Neuder (Health) and Thani Mohamed Soilihi (Francophonie and International Partnerships).
The day will begin at 7:15 a.m. local time (5:15 a.m. Paris time) with a visit to the Petite Terre desalination plant, followed by that of the Kaweni 2 college in Mamoudzou and the field hospital installed after the cyclone. Several meetings are planned with economic players, security forces and local elected officials, as well as a tribute ceremony to gendarmerie captain Florian Monnier who died in intervention after the passage of the cyclone.
At the end of this day, François Bayrou will speak to the Departmental Council before going in the evening to the island of Reunion, an important logistical base for aid in Mayotte, located 1,435 kilometers away, where he will continue his visit Tuesday morning before returning to the metropolis.
“Concrete solutions”
François Bayrou is going to Mayotte “with the desire to provide concrete solutions to the populations there on issues of education, health, housing”, explains those around him. And “with his experience as a local elected official, who knows how to provide concrete, and above all rapid, responses to meet the needs of Mahoraises and Mahorais”, adds this source.
Friday, in an open letter, the first secretary of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure demanded “acts” for Mayotte from the Prime Minister, whom he also criticizes for not having gone “immediately” to the site, for having announced the composition of his government on the day of national mourning Monday December 23 and to have “seemed to seek to relativize the importance of the disaster”. Appointed Prime Minister on December 13, the day before the cyclone, François Bayrou sparked a lively controversy by going to the Municipal Council of Pau on December 16, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, after having participated by videoconference in a crisis meeting on Mayotte.
“The debris continues to pile up, raising fears of health risks, water and food remain rationed, electricity is cut off for half the population in the northwest of the island and in the razed shanty towns, the residents feel abandoned and are waiting for help,” wrote PS MP Olivier Faure, who also questions the head of government about “the work of censusing deceased people.” The human toll still remains very uncertain, with 39 deaths officially recorded and more than 4,000 injured.