It all started so well. The welcome at the airport and in the half-dozen villages we covered at full speed. Everywhere there are cries of joy, songs and calls for help in the face of the scale of the disaster. In Mayotte, Marine Le Pen enjoys undeniable popularity. Quite the opposite of Emmanuel Macron, heckled two weeks earlier.
“She’s our president, she’s the one who’s going to save us!” » says an onlooker as he gets off the plane. The RN had, however, asked to limit the reception committee to the strict minimum given the seriousness of the situation. But on the island, the arrival of Marine Le Pen sounds like an unexpected parenthesis. In each commune, his arrival creates a crowd. The mamas flock, often veiled and dressed in their salouva, these long colorful dresses with yellow flowers, the traditional Mahorais dress. They hug her, kiss her like a sister they haven't seen for too long, give her “Auntie” in the middle of destroyed sheet metal and still smoking braziers of waste.
8,000 kilometers from Hénin-Beaumont, where she was re-elected as a deputy in the first round in 2024, Marine Le Pen made Mayotte her second stronghold: 59% of the votes in the second round of the last presidential election, 52% for Jordan Bardella at the Europeans. The domination is overwhelming, the result of a decade of politics on an archipelago which concentrates all the difficulties.
Immigration and national priority
In Mayotte, where half the population is foreign, his anti-immigration speech meets with a more than favorable response. “If we do not admit that there are not 320,000 inhabitants on the island, it is obvious that the policies implemented are not suitable. Everyone tells you there are at least 500,000 people”she protests, while admitting to fearing “lose the demographic war” led by Azali Assoumani (the Comorian president). In 2018, his group tabled a bill in the Assembly to abolish land law, legal aid for foreigners, and make asylum requests on the island impossible. So many measures partly approved today at the highest summit of the State, and of which she claims the authorship.
In each commune, his arrival creates a crowd. An unexpected break
Here as in mainland France, the three-time presidential candidate is playing the national priority card. “People have the impression that there is a lot of talk about help, but they haven't seen anyone. When you have the same speech in four or five villages, it means that the feeling corresponds to reality. Perhaps it’s that eyes are turning elsewhere”thinks Marine Le Pen. In its sights, the efforts of the State, which would only be concentrated around Mamoudzou, the capital of the archipelago, where the majority of populations resulting from illegal immigration are grouped.
The rest after this ad
In Mayotte, the member of Parliament for Pas-de-Calais finally benefits from the resentment of the inhabitants in the face of Emmanuel Macron's unfulfilled commitments: the extension of the landing strip at Dzaoudzi, already promised by Jacques Chirac, has never been seen the light of day. Just like the construction of a second hospital and the deep water port. “Pure communication”annoys those around Marine Le Pen. In ten years, it went from 2% to almost 60% of the votes. “Overseas, it’s 4% of the electoratewelcomes an advisor. This is what put Chirac ahead of Balladur in 1995.” In addition, his popularity in an African land with a Muslim majority sounds like a major argument to brush aside the accusations of xenophobia inherited from his father.
“I’m sorry”
On January 7, Paris commemorates in the cold the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack in Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher. Under the Mahorais sun, Marine Le Pen boards one of the barges at 9:30 a.m. which takes her in ten minutes to Petite Terre, where the airport is located. The crossing turns out to be bumpy. The captain collides with another boat traveling in the opposite direction. Marine Le Pen is shaken. But more fear than harm. A border police zodiac is nevertheless chartered to transport the delegation to the mainland.
In Dzaoudzi, Marine Le Pen takes her seat aboard Air Austral flight UU979 and activates airplane mode on her phone. A technical stopover is planned two hours later in Nairobi (Kenya) to refuel and change crew. Impossible to exit the device or access the network, otherwise your bill will skyrocket. On the tarmac of the Kenyan capital, it was a small group of journalists who heard the news first. By successfully accessing the wifi, the press received the urgent message from Agence France Presse at 12:57 p.m.: “Jean-Marie Le Pen is dead (family to AFP). » Stupor among the delegation. Marine Le Pen is at the front of the plane, in business class, and does not seem to know. At his side, Louis Aliot, headphones on, continues to watch his film.
Present on board, JDNews transmits the information to the RN press officer, who realizes the intensity of the situation. It is he who, with dispatch in support, crosses the plane to warn the main person concerned. “I’m sorry”he told him soberly. Marine Le Pen struggles to realize, gets up, and asks the network pilot to contact her sister. On the phone, Marie-Caroline Le Pen confirms the news, voluntarily made official before Marine Le Pen landed in Paris to avoid leaks. She will spend the nine hours of flight to Roissy without network, before leaving the plane first, without making a statement to the press.
France
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