After the appointment of Thani Mohamed Soilihi to the government at the end of September, the seat of the senator from Mayotte became vacant. His substitute, niece of a famous activist for maintaining the archipelago within the French Republic, succeeded him.
Mayotte has always been an exception within the Republic. By its history, by its culture, by its migration policy (different from all other French departments), by its many challenges (economic, environmental, security, etc.). But the Mahorais, very attached to their French identity, aspire to no longer be a particularity. In this regard, the historic entry of one of their number into the government is a first step.
Saturday November 23, like the head of state of a great world power, the native Thani Mohamed Soilihi was welcomed with great fanfare by his fellow citizens of Mayotte. It was the first time he returned home since his appointment to Michel Barnier's ministerial team on September 21, 2024 as Secretary of State for La Francophonie and International Partnerships. Not the most prestigious of ministries, certainly. But still. A great first for Mayotte.
Especially since this great historic first did not come alone: by joining the executive, Thani Mohamed Soilihi, lawyer who became senator from Mayotte in 2011, left his seat in the Senate vacant. Seat now occupied by a woman: Salama Ramia. This too, a first.
On Saturday, the senator was also part of the Secretary of State's delegation who came to Mayotte to sample the popular fervor. “Today we are writing an essential page in our history”she declaimed from the platform in front of a crowd gathered on the Place des Congrès, in Pamandzi. A page that she herself wants to help write.
After her accession to the Senate two months ago, she also received a cheerful welcome from the population when she returned to her island. It was October 5. At Dzaoudzi-Pamandzi airport, a committee of women, dressed in the traditional salouva of Mayotte, came to cheer her and slip flower necklaces around her neck. In recent years, this warm welcome has been reserved for Marine Le Pen, a national political figure acclaimed in the archipelago for her radical speech on immigration.
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Salama Ramia has nothing of Marine Le Pen. Far from it. “All the women finally saw in me a woman senator, which had been expected for a very, very long time”she said from the impressive Senate Conference Room. It is here, now, that she works. Under the gold of the Republic. Where the chandeliers are gold, the sofas are velvet, and the carpet is bright red.
On September 21, the deputy mayor of Pamandzi, a town in Petite-Terre where her family comes from, was in Paris when she received a phone call from Thani Mohamed Soilihi. He announces his promotion to her. And therefore that she will replace him in the Senate. “It was a bit of a shock (…) It took away my appetite”she remembers with a laugh.
Once the news has been received, she heads directly to the Senate, near the Luxembourg Gardens, to start working and get her bearings. In reality, the senator was already prepared, because since the end of 2023, she has been a parliamentary collaborator of her running mate. She therefore knows the files well.
Salama Ramia and Thani Mohamed Soilihi have known each other for a long time. Despite his discretion, the man “is a lawyer who was known locally”. For his third senatorial campaign in 2023, he asked the woman who was then locally elected to become his deputy. She accepts, but sets her conditions: “I didn’t want to be just a substitute, I really wanted to be invested.” Perfect for the senator-candidate: “I wanted to identify a rigorous, committed and effective substitute to mobilize on parliamentary issues in the service of our fellow citizens”explains the Secretary of State for Overseas 1st.
Coming from a renowned family in Mayotte – her father is a soldier, her brother is a three-time world boxing champion – Salama Ramia was born and raised in France. After her business studies, she decided to settle on her parents' island, going against the grain of others, who mostly took the opposite path. She then worked in the world of consular chambers and in the economic development of the archipelago.
When she arrived in 1993, Mayotte was not yet a French department. But, in the Ramia family, the fight for the defense of territory within the Republic is sacred. Her aunt, Coco Madi, is a famous Chatouilleuse, named after these activists who chased away the Comorian emissaries whose mission was to rally Mayotte to the rest of the Comoros islands, independent since 1975. Zéna M'déré, Zakia Madi, Zaïna Méresse. .. It was mainly Mahorese women who mobilized to preserve the status of Mayotte. Salama Ramia keeps this republican activism as a legacy: “I continue the work they started”she assumes.
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Locally, his arrival in the Senate is seen as reparation for women. Because, in Mayotte, it is mainly women who lead the political battles. They are the ones who fought, through tickling, for Mayotte to remain French. They were also the ones who fought to obtain departmentalization. It is they, again, who are standing up to protest against French migration policy in Mayotte, against insecurity, and for the convergence of rights between the territory and France. However, for a long time, if the local fight was carried by the Mahoraises, it was the men who obtained positions of power and went to Paris to represent the archipelago.
This wind has turned. In July, in the legislative elections, the voters of Mayotte elected two women to the National Assembly (out of the two constituencies in the territory) : Estelle Youssouffa, seasoned activist against illegal immigration who sits within the Libertés, independents, Outre-mer et Territoires (LIOT) group, and Anchya Bamana, daughter of Younoussou Bamana, first MP to represent the territory in 1978, who, she joined the ranks of the National Rally.
“My appointment has created great hope and incredible enthusiasm in Mayotte”rejoices Salama Ramia, who clashes ideologically with her two sisters from the Palais Bourbon. In a calm, assured and serene voice, she lists her three priorities. : land, social convergence and economic development. Unlike the Mahorese deputies, who regularly fixate on immigration.
It's not that the topic isn't important… Of course, immigration is an important topic. But it's not just that, that's it. I think we also need to think about these other subjects which should not be neglected.
Salama Ramia, senator from Mayotte
“My priority, for example, would be land. The municipalities [mahoraises] have resource difficulties. Today, barely 30 % of land is registered”she says. But his parliamentary work is currently devoted to next year's budget, currently under discussion at the Luxembourg Palace.
Member of the Rally of Democrats, Progressives and Independents (RDPI, close to the presidential party) group, Salama Ramia voted for an amendment aimed at harmonizing the conditions of residence between Mayotte and France for the opening of family rights and extending the old age insurance for caregivers in its territory. A first major victory for the elected official in the discussions on the Social Security finance bill. It now remains for her and her overseas colleagues in the Senate to save the credits for the Overseas mission, which will be studied in the coming weeks.
Saturday, on the Place des Congrès in Pamandzi, the new senator from Mayotte said it again and again, paying tribute to her predecessor who became Secretary of State: “This moment is not an end in itself, but the beginning of a path to travel together. (…) We are relays between Mayotte and Paris. And we will strengthen this bridge, day after day, with the desire to move our island forward.”
