Manuel Valls is ironic about his reunion with Aurélien Taché after a tense question in the Assembly

COMMISSION – Not without rancor. It was his big return to the deputies before returning to the cauldron of the Assembly, this Tuesday, January 14, for François Bayrou's general policy speech. The Minister of Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls had the opportunity to warm up in the bain-marie of the Economic Affairs Committee this Monday on the emergency bill for Mayotte, after the passage of the devastating cyclone Chido.

During the debates, the minister was notably questioned by the elected LFI, Aurélien Taché. The MP has “a visceral rejection” towards Manuel Valls, as he himself said in a column for Politis, published at the beginning of January.

A feeling of enmity, which could be felt in the rather virulent tone of the question asked in committee and which had in particular the subject of land rights in Mayotte. Aurélien Taché accused the minister of “double standards”. “ This is basically consistent with the loss of nationality that you previously wanted to reserve for our binational compatriots. », first criticized Aurélien Taché in reference to the bill carried by Manuel Valls under the presidency of François Hollande. Opposed to the Prime Minister at the time on this text, he ended up joining the En Marche campaign.

And the deputy then mentioned the comments of Manuel Valls on the count of the inhabitants of Mayotte. While the institute lists 310,000 people in the territory, the minister judged that“today, we are probably not far from 500,000 inhabitants”. What arouses criticism: “ indecent », Reacted Jean-Luc Tavernier, the director of INSEE. Aurélien Taché notably concluded his intervention by calling for a real development aid policy for the Comoros and the establishment of “ legal migration routes to France ».

“Neither you nor I, then, have changed »

To this directive tone, the minister chose to respond with a joke, immediately ironic at the start of his response: “ Mr. Deputy, you cannot know the pleasure I have in meeting you (laughter within the committee, editor’s note). And I see that neither you nor I, then, have changed ».

Basically, the Overseas Minister recalled that the priority was to rebuild and replace the tarpaulins with roofs. As for the migration question, Manuel Valls assures: “ I did not say that I was in favor of the end of the right of soil, I recalled that it was a constitutional debate. I know what we can do with this framework, and what has already been done is the restriction of this land right for obvious reasons. All the Mahorais ask us there ».

Land law or the migration issue do not appear in the emergency bill, but were very regularly mentioned by the members of the committee this Tuesday afternoon. The minister explained that the debate will be held within the framework of another bill, while reiterating his desire for firmness on the issue with the leverage of an increase in removals (from 25,000 to 35,000), an extension of the length of residence of parents for their children's access to French nationality, or even an intensification of the fight against fraudulent recognition of paternity.

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