Since the devastating passage of Cyclone Chido on Mayotte on December 14, Estelle Youssouffa has become essential in the media. Logic: the 46-year-old Mahoraise represents the first constituency of the archipelago in the National Assembly since 2022. A tireless defender of her territory, with often divisive opinions, the MP who sits with the Liberté et Territoires group (Liot), says arrived in Mayotte on Monday. She accompanied and questioned Emmanuel Macron on Thursday during his visit.
While the cyclone could have caused hundreds of deaths, she continues interviews to warn about the “drama” that the Mahorais live, demanding acts from the State, while shooting arrows at the government. “That the new Prime Minister decides to go to a municipal council, I find that obscene”she judged on franceinfo on Tuesday, regarding the decision of François Bayrou to go to the municipal council of Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), of which he is mayor, and to attend a crisis meeting about the situation at Mayotte by videoconference.
The day before, she deplored on the social network “arrived first in the devastated territory” while “the Mahorese parliamentarians were not invited” to accompany him.
Best elected MP in the July 2024 legislative elections, with 79.48% of the votes in the first round, Estelle Youssouffa was at the head of a collective of citizens of the archipelago before entering politics during the 2022 legislative elections. The former journalist, fine communicator, was born in Châtenay-Malabry (Hauts-de-Seine) “from a Mahorais father” before growing up in the archipelago, reports 20 Minutes.
Unknown to the general public until 2018, she stood out on television sets during the social movement against insecurity, reports Mayotte La 1ère. Above all, she is distinguished by her radical positions against immigration from the Comoros. Enough to quickly make her one of the figureheads of the anti-immigrant movement which is forming in the territory.
Marked on the right, but elected without a label, she promises to ally herself with those who would move things forward for Mayotte. “The issues we raise [ici] are not the same as those in mainland France. Which national party includes water supply in its program?”she exhibited at Mayotte La 1ère before her election in 2021, promising to be “a mercenary” for the poorest department in France.
Once on the benches of the National Assembly, Estelle Youssouffa becomes an elected official “combative, stubborn, resolute and tenacious”describes a parliamentary source Liot to franceinfo. From the Palais-Bourbon, she denounces the attitude of the Comoros, accused of doing nothing to stop departures to Mayotte. Guest of “Télématin” on France 2 in November 2022, she launches a cry from the heart in the face of the violence affecting Mayotte. “We fear a bloodbath. The feeling of abandonment will make people break down and will end up taking the law into their own hands.” she said before asking “exceptional laws.
Speaking to franceinfo, she claimed the following year to have inspired the government to implement Operation Wuambushu, which aimed to fight against unsanitary housing, illegal immigration and delinquency.
The MP is convinced of this: the Mahorais population shares its very firm point of view against immigration, including when it describes “paper babies” the children of women who come from the Comoros and who give birth in the French department. “The positions I defend are sharedshe explains to Franceinfo in August 2023. I think that the tens of thousands of people who came to support the operation [Wuambushu] showed the whole country that I am not an isolated fanatic.”
Too bad if his rants are echoed by far-right elected officials, like National Rally (RN) MP Laure Lavalette in a message posted on X in June 2023. “The number one problem in Mayotte is illegal immigration. And the only party that consistently addresses the issue is the RN”did she justify herself at the time to Political.
Estelle Youssouffa is also noted for her commitment against land law in her department. At the start of 2024, she supports the proposal of the Minister of the Interior at the time Gérald Darmanin for a constitutional project aimed at abolishing land rights in Mayotte, estimating on BFMTV that this will “end to the suction pump” of immigration.
Regardless of the criticism coming from the left and some lawyers, Estelle Youssouffa tabled a bill to this effect last September. “Mayotte has plunged into asphyxiation because of a legal paradox: land law, the pillar of the republican edifice, and the territorialized visa fixing foreigners legally in Mayotte, have transformed into dysfunctional levers”she then justifies herself in a forum at Figaro. The elected official calls on her fellow deputies to “get out of dogmatic postures” pour “reinvent” the policies.
Faced with the urgency of the current situation, the MP is now calling for the establishment of a “state of emergency” and the “army deployment”. True to herself, she took advantage of her appearance on CNews on Monday to address the supposed absence of “humanist gauchos bobos”, reacting to a message from Jean-Luc Mélenchon expressing indignation at government action towards Mayotte.
From the archipelago, she forcefully warns of the catastrophic situation of the 101st French department, denouncing in particular the looting. “There is a big problem of public order and security. Let’s not let Mayotte fall back into chaos.”explains Estelle Youssoufa on Wednesday at Figarowho does not hesitate to make her “the voice of an entire people”. The MP is already thinking about what comes next: “we are not going to rebuild ourselves, we are going to simply build ourselves”she confided to franceinfo on Tuesday, with a sense of formula that has become her trademark.
