“An act of extreme gravity.” President of the Regional Council of La Réunion, Huguette Bello (various left) weighed her words to condemn the sale by the State to the private Mauritian group IBL, of a 6.8 hectare plot housing one of the island’s beautiful hotels. Located on a white sand beach and facing the translucent waters of the Hermitage lagoon, the Lux Saint-Gilles, a five-star establishment, has 174 rooms and employs more than 250 people.
In a motion voted on September 6, the community chaired by Mr.me Bello considers that the transfer of a “land as strategic as this to an external player turns its back on the interests of Reunion Island and therefore of France.” Mme Bello announced that the community would take legal action to prevent this transfer to a “foreign country” of a “strategic and emblematic location of the tourist offer” for an estimated amount of 28 million euros.
This is not the first time that the elected official from Reunion Island, whose name was mentioned in July as the candidate of the New Popular Front for the post of Prime Minister, has posed as a defender of the “Reunion economic patriotism”. Huguette Bello had already raised this issue to oppose the merger between the French airlines Air Austral – based in Reunion Island – and Corsair. An option favored by the State in 2022 to save the two entities in great financial difficulty. The regional president had then highlighted the challenges of opening up the island’s airspace.
A “narrow vision of the economy”
By raising this theme again, she also wants to point out that other large Reunion companies, in the retail, construction and water sectors, have fallen into the hands of investors from Mauritius, the neighbouring island more than two hundred kilometres away. The local sugar group Quartier Français has been absorbed by the French giant Tereos. Furthermore, many local brands are owned by the West Indian group Hayot. “The centre of gravity of local economic decisions is increasingly slipping away from Reunion, notes an advisor to M.me Beautiful. The profits go back outside.”
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Threatened again, Air Austral plans 10% salary cuts
Add to your selections
Applied to the hotel sector, the concepts of “Reunion economic patriotism” and of “protection of strategic interests” However, locals seem to have difficulty convincing the island’s economic circles, who remain cautious on the subject. All the more so since some of M’s opponentsme Bello accuses him of autonomist designs, with a risk of closing Reunion Island in on itself.
You have 58.03% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
