Cyclone in Mayotte: the mayor of Tarbes cancels the greeting ceremony to donate his expenses to the victims

“I don’t see myself celebrating, while thousands of kilometers away, our compatriots are in absolute poverty and destitution.” These are the strong words spoken by the mayor of Tarbes Gérard Trémège, during a press briefing, to justify his decision to cancel the greeting ceremony and donate its expenses to the victims of Mayotte, the 101st French department ravaged by a cyclone on an unprecedented scale.

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“We had planned to organize greetings to the population on January 7 at the Tarbes exhibition center, as we did before covid,” explains the mayor of Tarbes.

But faced with this disaster of unprecedented scale until now, I decided with the manager of the organization of this celebration, the elected official Roger-Vincent Calatayud, not to organize this ceremony. Instead, the expenses generated by the organization of this event of around €10,000 will be allocated to an exceptional donation to our compatriots in Mayotte.

The city of Tarbes will “contact the president of the Departmental Council directly to make this donation” indicates Gérard Trémège who expresses “his solidarity with the large Mahorais community in Tarbes”.

The considerable success of Christmas events

Gérard Trémège “hopes that this is an example that will be followed by many, because we bear a collective responsibility, in particular the French State, in relation to this disaster. It is scandalous that over the years, we have left this territory abandoned, including nearly 100,000 people whom we left to live in slums which, of course, were swept away like a straw by the cyclone.

At this difficult end of a year where “we have the impression of witnessing a nightmarish spectacle where the curtain is torn and collapsed, in a never-before-seen climate of suspicion and hatred in the face of which we must stand together and putting egos on the shelf in the name of the interest of France and the French”, Gérard Trémège wishes “happy holidays in peace, serenity and solidarity to the Tarbais” and hopes that “we will quickly be able to find the ways and means to ensure that civil peace is regained.

He also echoes “the great satisfaction of the people of Tarbes regarding the Christmas activities in Tarbes which offer them an enchanted break” and takes the opportunity to thank the services of his city.