“The Comoros have always been a unit. It is natural that their fate should be a common fate.”
When Valéry Giscard d'Estaing uttered these words in October 1974, the independence of the Comoros, then French
,
was a closed affair for the Élysée.
The referendum organized two months later, in the great wave of decolonization begun in the 1960s, which advocates the "right of peoples to self-determination", is only a formality.
In fact, 99% of the inhabitants of Mohéli, Anjouan and Grande Comore voted for independence.
But in Mayotte, the fourth island of the archipelago, 63% claim to remain in the French Republic.
If "VGE" is so determined in the independence process, it is because, six months earlier, when the presidential election promises to be tight, the candidate would have concluded an agreement with the head of the government of the Comoros , Ahmed Abdullah.
The independence of the four islands - including Mayotte - in exchange for the votes of the Comorians.
Read alsoMayotte or the consequences of a discussed decolonization
A barter revealed by Mitterrand four…
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