The deputies begin on Monday the examination of the emergency bill for Mayotte, the first text of the Bayrou government to be debated in the hemicycle. There is little doubt about its adoption given the imperative to accelerate the reconstruction of the archipelago devastated by Cyclone Chido.
Deemed “insufficient” by many deputies, this text – comprising 22 articles, mainly exemptions from town planning rules and some social measures – was largely adopted in the Economic Affairs Committee last week.
And this, even if the rapporteur of the bill, the deputy for Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) had deplored during the debates a text drawn up “without consultation” of local elected officials, and which “remains largely silent on essential subjects such as immigration.”
The second MP for Mayotte, Anchya Bamana (RN), had raised the same grievances, saying she was “angry” at a text “which misses the point”, by not allowing the fight against “migrant overwhelm”.
Although evaded, and postponed to a future “program” law announced by the government within two months, migration issues should become the backdrop to the debates.
The Minister of Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls – who will speak for the first time in the Palais Bourbon arena since his return to government – will certainly repeat the “firm measures” to fight against immigration, listed during his hearing in committee, and which will constitute, according to him, a “primary aspect” of the future law.
A bill aimed at restricting land rights in Mayotte will also be examined on February 6, providing for extending the duration of residence of parents for their children's access to French nationality.
On Monday, deputies must consider articles allowing, for example, the State to waive certain town planning rules or to facilitate financing to accelerate the reconstruction of housing, but also of schools, which have been hard hit.
– Reconstruction of schools –
One measure in the bill aims, for example, to authorize the State to ensure their construction, reconstruction or renovation in place of local authorities until December 31, 2027.
-At the same time, teachers across the archipelago return to school, a week before their students. A return to school has already been postponed several times, while around forty establishments have not been repaired or are still welcoming victims.
No article in the bill therefore deals with migration issues, and the amendments tabled to this effect by the right and the extreme right were deemed inadmissible.
The President of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet assumes this, these questions will be addressed later, because this text “is an emergency law” to “rebuild Mayotte quickly”.
“If you put too many things in it” then you compromise “its rapid adoption”, she argued during a trip to the archipelago on January 11.
In committee, several provisions voted on, however, made left-wing deputies cringe, such as this amendment from rapporteur Estelle Youssouffa, aimed at regulating the sale of sheet metal “on the presentation of an identity document”.
A “shocking” measure, in the words of environmentalist MP Dominique Voynet, who abstained from voting on the entire text in committee, because this law “totally” misses the issues of “reconstruction”, according to She.
However, she did not want to hinder its adoption given the “catastrophic situation” in which the archipelago is plunged. Just like the deputies of La France insoumise, who also preferred to abstain.
The former minister, who was director of the Mayotte Regional Health Agency from 2019 to 2021, however hopes that several of her amendments, in particular to ensure access to drinking water in schools, will be adopted in session.
