Gérald Darmanin announced the end of land rights in Mayotte in order to combat the problems of insecurity and uncontrolled immigration on the island.
A measure contested by the left and supported by the right.
Emmanuel Macron will meet Gérald Darmanin and Marie Guévenoux
Emmanuel Macron receives Overseas Ministers Gérald Darmanin and Marie Guévenoux on Monday to discuss the constitutional reform which should remove land rights in Mayotte, still paralyzed by residents angry at insecurity and uncontrolled immigration.
Strongly criticized by the left which has already announced its refusal to vote for it, this shock measure was unveiled on Sunday by the Minister of the Interior and his colleague delegated to Overseas during a lightning visit to the archipelago of the Indian Ocean.
The executive intends to initiate the necessary constitutional revision without delay.
Mayotte is still blocked this Monday
“We have to move very quickly
,” Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti said on Sunday.
“We are seeing the president later at the end of the afternoon”
to give him
“a review of our trip
,” Ms. Guévenoux declared on Franceinfo on Monday.
Because on the ground, Mayotte remained largely blocked on Monday.
The barges which connect Grande-Terre and Petite-Terre were still stopped and the blockades in place since January 22 in the four corners of the territory.
“It is out of the question to lift the blockades for the moment
,” Safina Soula, the president of one of the citizen groups, told AFP in the morning.
“We have agreed with the minister, we are waiting for written documents
,” she said.
“We are giving him until Wednesday to receive this letter (...) we will see if the content meets our expectations
. ”
On Sunday, Gérald Darmanin specified that a letter of commitment should be sent at the start of this week to the collective of
“forces vives”
, which is leading the movement, and to local elected officials.
“I understood that after receiving this letter, the roadblocks would be lifted
,” he anticipated.
On RTL, Mayotte MP Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) said she hoped for
“a lifting of the roadblocks from Wednesday”
.
A 90% drop in residence permits
The poorest French department in France, Mayotte is populated by 310,000 inhabitants, according to INSEE - probably much more according to the Regional Chamber of Accounts - including 48% Comorian immigrants or other African countries.
Most arrive illegally aboard traditional fishing boats from the Comorian island of Anjouan, just 70 km away.
Many live in unsanitary
“bangas”
(huts) organized as shantytowns.
To try to stem this flow, Gérald Darmanin therefore decided to abolish the land law, a measure that he himself described as
“extremely strong, clear, radical”
.
“It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not yourself the child of French parents
,” he described.
Even if it must remain
“obviously limited to the Mayotte archipelago”
, according to Gérald Darmanin, the measure already largely divides the oppositions.
“To resolve the problems of Mayotte, we do not need less Republic, we need more Republic, and therefore certainly not the act of undermining the law of the soil
,” declared on CNews/Europe 1 the LFI deputy Manuel Bompard.
“It’s a good start since we have been calling for the abolition of land rights for the entire country for twenty years
,” recalled the president of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, on Franceinfo.
The end of land rights in Mayotte will make it possible, according to Gérald Darmanin, to eliminate territorialized residence permits, a system preventing holders of a Mayotte residence permit from coming to France and for which groups of angry residents are demanding suppression.
The number of residence permits issued in Mayotte will decrease by 90% with these new measures and the tightening of family reunification permitted by the recent immigration law, the minister's entourage told AFP.
The removal of this system will be recorded in a Mayotte bill soon submitted to the National Assembly.