This text should “facilitate the accommodation and support of the population, as well as the reconstruction or repair of damaged infrastructure and housing,” declared Overseas Minister Manuel Valls during the report of the Council of Ministers. He estimated the measures taken at “several hundred million euros”, grouped into 22 articles authorizing in particular the State to deviate from town planning rules for two years, facilitating the rules of expropriation – notoriously complicated in Mayotte – but also containing more temporary social measures.
“Powerful operator”. For longer-term “structural” measures, particularly around questions of immigration, security and economic development, the government is planning another draft “program law” which will be drawn up within three months. To carry out the reconstruction of Mayotte, the bill provides for the establishment of a “powerful operator dedicated” to this mission, based on the model of that set up for Notre-Dame de Paris. General Pascal Facon, military commander of the South zone, will be appointed to head this operator which will absorb the public land and development establishment of Mayotte (EPFAM).
Main innovation, the text presented on Wednesday aims to waive “for two years” the rules of town planning and public procurement, to facilitate the reconstruction of schools but also of infrastructure and housing affected by the “most serious civil security crisis than the country has experienced since the Second World War,” according to Manuel Valls. Concerning schools, hard hit while Mayotte is the youngest department in France, “the State or one of its public establishments” will be able to ensure their construction, reconstruction or renovation in place of local authorities until December 31, 2027 .
Partial unemployment. On land, while it is often difficult to formally identify the owners of land in Mayotte, the text provides for the ability to expropriate before an owner has been identified, even if it means compensating them after the fact. The text also contains several economic measures which will remain in force “until March 31, 2025”, such as the suspension of the collection of social contributions from self-employed workers, the extension of the rights of socially insured and unemployed people or the increase in support partial unemployment. “This emergency bill contains essential measures to envisage reconstruction, it must therefore be adopted by Parliament and then promulgated as quickly as possible,” insisted Mr. Valls during his presentation of the text.
Its examination in the Economic Affairs Committee is scheduled for Monday, the date of resumption of activity in the National Assembly. But the Minister for Overseas Territories recognized that the text was “no doubt incomplete”, hoping for amendments and mentioning in particular “other very urgent measures” such as the fight against illegal housing, which does not appear in the draft law, or that against illegal immigration. “We will not let Mayotte become a shanty island again,” he insisted, in particular by increasing “the resources for law enforcement.”
Reconstruction of houses. “I recognize that this is one of the most difficult issues because several tens of thousands of people live in these slums (…). Not everyone is in an irregular situation, not everyone is an immigrant. This is a delicate issue that cannot be resolved by snapping our fingers,” the minister underlined, while many residents of the informal neighborhoods of the archipelago have already rebuilt their homes. “I will be very clear, the priority for us is the reconstruction of the houses, the roofs of the Mahorais,” he continued, excluding the rehousing of slum dwellers – often undocumented Comorians – so as not to give a “bonus to irregular immigration”.
“The text is unacceptable because it provides no response to the real emergencies of Mayotte,” said former Mayotte MP and LR vice-president in charge of Overseas Mansour Kamardine to AFP. For her part, Liot MP from Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa, without commenting on the emergency bill, demanded that local entrepreneurs “be given priority over contracts” for the reconstruction of the archipelago. Chido, the most devastating cyclone in Mayotte in 90 years, caused the death of at least 39 people on December 14 and left more than 5,600 injured, according to the latest report published by the authorities.
Thibault MARCHAND
© Agence France-Presse
