It is a visit which should be much less tense than those of Emmanuel Macron, François Bayrou or even Elisabeth Borne in recent days. The leader of the deputies of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, begins this Sunday, January 5, a two-day visit to Mayotte where she plans to meet rescuers and disaster victims, three weeks after the passage of Cyclone Chido.
Marine Le Pen is due to arrive on the devastated island “at the beginning of the afternoon, by a military flight”, specifies her entourage. Once there, “she will meet civil security, then go to meet the residents”, before “a time of discussion planned for the end of the afternoon in Mamoudzou with disaster victims”. The rest of his program, Monday and Tuesday, is not yet known, but “the objective is to meet the victims on several points of the island”.
Failing to bring tons of aid, or to be able to announce measures like Emmanuel Macron then François Bayrou before her, this visit by Marine Le Pen is “a sign of support (and) affection for our Mahorais compatriots”, said its spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli on Saturday on France Inter.
Following the presentation by François Bayrou of the “Mayotte standing” plan to rebuild the island, the three-time presidential candidate affirmed that “the announcements made by the Prime Minister are undoubtedly going in the right direction”. But through this trip, the far-right opponent also intends to exert “additional pressure on the government”, a few days before the presentation of an emergency bill for Mayotte, MP Thomas Ménage underlined on Friday on Franceinfo.
Clear popularity in the elections
In the poorest department in France, plagued by strong migratory pressure particularly from the neighboring Comoros, the RN and its leader were acclaimed in the last presidential and legislative elections. The party with the flame even obtained, last July, one of its first two parliamentary seats in Overseas. “Marine Le Pen is very popular in Mayotte”, where “the population is demanding her descent”, assures the Mayotte elected representative to the Assembly, Anchya Bamana.
In any case, the reception promises to be less hostile than for the Head of State, who was heckled during his visit, just a few days after the disaster. An attack that he attributed to “people from the National Rally”. “It’s important that elected officials of this national stature think of us in these troubled times,” said the president of the Mayotte citizens’ collective, Fatihou Ibrahim.
But for others, Marine Le Pen’s presence is at best a non-event. “I don’t see what she can bring us at the moment,” judges Anfida, a 32-year-old care worker, interviewed Friday by AFP. Abou, a 28-year-old TotalEnergies employee, believes that “all these politicians are coming to bluff us”.
On the executive side, Laurent Marcangeli appears more conciliatory. “I will judge on the evidence”, declares the Minister of the Civil Service in La Tribune Sundaynoting that the finalist in the last two presidential elections “did not make a caricatured speech on the Prime Minister’s visit” at the start of the week.