2023-09-02 16:18:26
The Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories, Philippe Vigier, during his visit to a sugar cane plantation in Reunion on August 31, 2023. RICHARD BOUHET / AFP
Criticized during his appointment by many ultramarine parliamentarians on his alleged ignorance of their territories, Philippe Vigier, the new minister delegate in charge of overseas, went to Reunion for a three-day visit, which ended Friday, September 1.
Jean-François Carenco’s successor was this time without his supervisory authorities, after his trips to New Caledonia alongside the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, then to Polynesia with the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin. He took advantage of his first speeches to underline that he “sat for five years on the overseas delegation of the National Assembly”.
Without dwelling on this lawsuit for legitimacy, Philippe Vigier above all wanted to convey his message in the form of an acronym to elected officials from overseas: “My roadmap is the CIOM. » During this interministerial committee for overseas territories, on July 18 in Paris, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, presented a list of 72 measures which, according to her, must “provide concrete responses to the challenges faced by [les] overseas citizens”mainly on issues of cost of living, housing, employment, energy transition, agriculture or even territorial continuity with the price of plane tickets.
After sales service
“The CIOM is a great event”, rejoiced Philippe Vigier by ensuring the after-sales service of the announcements made. Above all, the Minister set out his “method”: “It will be listening and it will not be: ‘we wait and watch what happens’. » The former MoDem MP has announced that he will receive, between November 15 and 30, “all the executive presidents of all the overseas territories with all the ministers concerned”to review each measurement and correct “ the trajectories where it does not go”.
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“Cooperation is a wonderful thing”, replied the president of the regional council of Reunion, Huguette Bello (various left). But while recalling that, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee), food products are 37% more expensive in Reunion than in France, and that “320,000 Reunionese live below the poverty line”. The elected representative from Reunion believes that “duopolies and oligopolies, that’s what affects the budget of Reunionese”. And not the dock dues. This tax inherited from the 17th century, which today finances local authorities, is guilty of malfunctions, according to certain economic players.
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