The far-right leader begins a two-day visit to the Indian Ocean island on Sunday, January 5, where the RN achieved excellent scores in previous elections and has been at the center of the political game since the passage of Cyclone Chido.
The leader of the deputies of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen, begins a two-day visit to Mayotte on Sunday, January 5, where she plans to meet rescuers and disaster victims three weeks after the passage of Cyclone Chido, and eight days before the return of the classes.
Marine Le Pen must arrive on the devastated island “at the beginning of the afternoon, by a military flight”, specifies those around him. Once there, “she will meet civil security, then go to meet the residents”, avant “a time of discussion planned for the end of the afternoon in Mamoudzou with 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 provide 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 [et] of affection for our Mahorais compatriots”, said its spokesperson Laurent Jacobelli on Saturday on France Inter.
A less hostile welcome than for Macron
The far-right opponent also intends to exercise “additional pressure on the government”, a few days before the presentation of an emergency bill for Mayotte, MP Thomas Ménage also highlighted on franceinfo on Friday. In this 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 flame party even obtained one of its first two overseas parliamentary seats last July. “Marine Le Pen is very popular in Mayotte”, Or “the population is demanding their descent”, thus assures the elected Mahorese RN 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. A challenge that he will then attribute to “people from the National Rally”. “That elected officials of this national stature think of us in these troubled times is important,” believes the president of the collective of citizens of Mayotte, 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,” judge Anfida, a 32-year-old care worker interviewed Friday by AFP, when Abou, a 28-year-old TotalEnergies employee, considers that “all these politicians are coming to bluff us.”
On the executive side, Laurent Marcangeli (Horizons) is more conciliatory: “I will judge on the evidence,” declares the Minister of the Civil Service in the Tribune Sunday, noting that the finalist of the last two presidential elections “did not make a caricatured speech on the Prime Minister’s visit” François Bayrou at the start of the week.
