Jonathan Bouchet-Petersen's post
Article reserved for subscribers
By preferring to attend a municipal council meeting in his town of Pau, rather than physically participating in the crisis unit managing the disaster, the Prime Minister committed his first mistake, and it is not small.
To not miss any Jonathan Bouchet-Petersen posts, subscribe to the newsletters from our political columnists
We wonder how the idea, astounding and, frankly, shocking, could have entered his head. While Mayotte, the 101st French department, is in pieces since the passage of Cyclone Chido, François Bayrou, who nevertheless does not lack political experience, flew on Monday to attend the municipal council of Pau (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), the city of which he is mayor, even though an interministerial crisis unit met at 6 p.m. at the Ministry of the Interior under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. The new tenant of Matignon certainly took part – still happy! – but by videoconference from the prefecture. Sending the signal that he considered it more important to be physically in Pau rather than going to the front in the management of the historic disaster affecting Mayotte, and whose human toll could quickly reach an unprecedented level for a territory