The emergency bill for the reconstruction of Mayotte, which should allow the “very rapid” implementation of measures for the archipelago devastated in mid-December by Cyclone Chido, was presented to the Council of Ministers this Wednesday. Manuel Valls put the measures taken at “several hundred million euros”, grouped into 22 articles.
The emergency bill for the reconstruction of Mayotte was presented Wednesday to the Council of Ministers, a text which should allow the “very rapid” implementation of measures for the archipelago devastated in mid-December by Cyclone Chido. This text should “facilitate accommodation and support for 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.
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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.
Establishment of a “powerful operator dedicated” to the reconstruction of Mayotte
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 authorities. On Wednesday, the prefect of Mayotte François-Xavier Bieuville estimated that there could be “around forty people missing”, while recalling that this figure “must be verified”.
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Mayotte, the poorest department in France in the Indian Ocean, has suffered for years from problems linked to immigration, security and economic development. To try to overcome this, the government is planning another draft “program law” which will be drawn up within three months.
To carry out the most urgent task, the reconstruction of Mayotte, the text unveiled on Wednesday provides for the establishment of a “powerful operator dedicated” to this mission, 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).
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“For two years” exemption from town planning and public procurement rules
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 . 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.
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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 security 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 Manuel Valls during his presentation of the text. Its examination in the Economic Affairs Committee is scheduled for Monday.
A text “no doubt incomplete”, agrees Manuel Valls
But the Minister for Overseas Territories recognized that the text was “no doubt incomplete”, referring in particular to “other very urgent measures” such as the fight against illegal housing, which does not appear in the bill, or that against illegal immigration. “We will not let Mayotte become a shanty island again,” he insisted, while many residents of the informal neighborhoods of the archipelago have already rebuilt their homes. However, he added that it was a “delicate issue that cannot be resolved by snapping our fingers.”
“I will be very clear, the priority for us is the reconstruction of the houses, the roofs of the Mahorais”, continued Manuel Valls, excluding the rehousing of the inhabitants of the slums – often undocumented Comorians – so as not to give “bonus for 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.
Finding the text “very insufficient”, LFI MP and president of the Economic Affairs Committee Aurélie Trouvé questions the budget which will be devoted to the reconstruction of Mayotte while the government “is in a logic of budgetary austerity”. “This should not be done to the detriment of the quality of safety standards,” she judged, also regretting the absence of mention of the agricultural sector, crucial in Mayotte. The senator from Mayotte, Saïd Omar Oili, regretted on Public Senate a catch-all text with “lots of mixed measures”.
