Traveling to Mayotte, President Emmanuel Macron declared “national mourning” as the human toll increased after the passage of Cyclone Chido. In France, this decree is issued on rare occasions, notably after terrorist attacks. Europe 1 looks back on the last occasions on which it was declared.
Faced with “the tragedy” of the passage of Cyclone Chido, responsible for at least thirty deaths in Mayotte according to François Bayrou’s speech on Tuesday, President Emmanuel Macron announced Monday evening on ) national mourning” after a government crisis meeting. This is now done during his trip to the archipelago.
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Nine national mournings decreed under the Fifth Republic
National mourning is rarely declared in France. Before the Fifth Republic, it was only organized once, in 1930, after the terrible floods in the Tarn basin which caused the death of hundreds of people. Under the Fifth Republic (1958), national mourning was only triggered nine times, and in the early years, it was reserved for the death of a President of the Republic. Thus, November 12, 1970 for Charles de Gaulle, April 6, 1974 for Georges Pompidou, who died while exercising his functions, and January 11, 1996 for François Mitterrand.
It is up to the President of the Republic to decide to declare national mourning, by signing a decree. For the death of Georges Pompidou during his mandate, it was the President of the Senate at the time, Alain Poher, who signed it. Indeed, as specified in the Constitution, he is the one who replaces the President of the Republic in the event of departure or death, during the organization of a new presidential election.
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National mourning after the terrorist attacks
The context for declaring national mourning changed in 2001, after the attacks of September 11, 2001 in the United States. President Jacques Chirac wanted to pay tribute to the more than 3,700 people who died in these terrorist attacks, by organizing a day of national mourning on September 14. To date, this is the only tribute paid in this way to people who died abroad.
The 2010 decade was marked by various terrorist attacks on French soil. On January 7, 2015, François Hollande declared national mourning after the attack on Charlie Hebdowhich will be organized the next day. Ten months later, after the attacks of November 13, this time, a three-day national mourning was decided. It is the first to last more than one day (November 15, 16 and 17, 2015). A three-day mourning was also declared after the attack in Nice on July 14, 2016.
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The last two national mourning events organized in France paid tribute to the memory of two former Presidents of the Republic, first Jacques Chirac, on September 30, 2019, then Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, on December 9, 2020. The French are therefore preparing these next few days to respect a tenth national mourning under the Fifth Republic, in tribute to the victims of cyclone Chido in Mayotte who could number in hundreds, even thousands according to the prefect of the archipelago.
