Prime Minister François Bayrou will arrive early Monday morning in Mayotte for a visit focused on “concrete solutions” for the inhabitants of the island devastated by cyclone Chido, we learned on Saturday from Matignon.
François Bayrou will be accompanied by Ministers of State Élisabeth Borne (Education) and Manuel Valls (Overseas) and Ministers Valérie Létard (Housing), Yannick Neuder (Health) and Thani Mohamed Soilihi (Francophonie and International Partnerships).
The day will begin at 7:15 a.m. with a visit to the Petite Terre desalination plant, followed by that of the Kaweni 2 college in Mamoudzou and the field hospital installed after the cyclone. Several meetings are planned with economic players, security forces and local elected officials, as well as a tribute ceremony to gendarmerie captain Florian Monnier who died in intervention after the passage of the cyclone.
At the end of this day, François Bayrou will speak to the departmental council before going in the evening to the island of Reunion, an important logistical base for aid in Mayotte, located 1,435 kilometers away, where he will continue his visit Tuesday morning before returning to the metropolis.
The announced objectives of this trip
Mr. Bayrou goes to Mayotte “with the desire to provide concrete solutions to the populations on site on issues of education, health and housing”. Et “with his experience as a local elected official, who knows how to provide concrete, and above all rapid, responses to meet the needs of the Mahorais and the Mahorais”explains those around him.
The trip, initially scheduled for Sunday and Monday, was postponed by 24 hours. Friday, in an open letter, the boss of the Socialist Party Olivier Faure demanded “acts” for Mayotte to the Prime Minister, whom he also criticizes for not having surrendered “immediately“on site, to have announced the composition of his government on the day of national mourning last Monday and to have “seemed to seek to put the importance of the disaster into perspective.”
Appointed Prime Minister on December 13, the day before the cyclone, Mr. Bayrou sparked a lively controversy by going to the Municipal Council of Pau on December 16, a city of which he intends to remain mayor, after participating in a meeting by videoconference crisis in Mayotte.
“Debris continues to pile up, raising fears of health risks, water and food remain rationed, electricity is cut off for half the population and in the northwest of the island and in the razed shanty towns, the residents feel abandoned and are waiting for help”wrote the first secretary of the PS, who also questions the head of government on “the work of registering deceased persons”.
The human toll still remains very uncertain, with 39 deaths officially recorded and more than 4,000 injured.
