Traveling to Mayotte, Élisabeth Borne expected on the issues of water, security and housing

2023-12-08 11:34:14

Élisabeth Borne is in Mayotte this Friday to make announcements on water, housing and health. This department, the poorest in France, is facing a serious drought, migratory pressure from the neighboring Comoros as well as growing insecurity.

After a traditional welcome at Petite-Terre airport, the Prime Minister, accompanied by two ministers, Aurélien Rousseau (Health) and Philippe Vigier (Overseas), must discuss the water shortage, to which residents do not respond. have access only one day in three, on an archipelago facing its worst drought since 1997. It should announce measures such as the continuation of the free distribution of bottled water, extended aid to businesses as well as an expansion of the desalination plant, which she must visit and the construction of a second plant.

This trip, the first by a head of government since Manuel Valls in 2015, coincides with the debate in Parliament on the very sensitive immigration bill which begins on Monday. Élisabeth Borne is due to visit a shanty town which will soon be dismantled, located in Koungou, to discuss rehousing, a subject which is debated on the island. MP LR Mansour Kamardine considers that the construction of housing or schools is “a call for fresh air” to immigration when the Cimade association defends a necessary “shelter”. The Prime Minister should discuss the State’s desire to create an operation of national interest in three municipalities (Koungou, Mamoudzou, Dembeni), in order to accelerate the rehousing of residents of destroyed slums.

A severe lack of caregivers

Half of the population in Mayotte does not have French nationality, according to INSEE (National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies), even if a third of foreigners were born on the island. This archipelago in the Indian Ocean has 310,000 inhabitants. Marine Le Pen received almost 60% of the votes in the last presidential election.

The Prime Minister “will not be able to ignore security and immigration issues”, a priority for local elected officials before the “Mayotte law” promised by the government, agrees the president of the departmental council Ben Issa Ousseni, labeled on the right. He hopes that Wuambushu type actions “can be sustained over time”, named after a controversial police operation. Élisabeth Borne should discuss measures such as securing the windows of school buses, the construction of a second prison, as well as more resources against irregular immigration with the modernization of surveillance radars at sea.

The head of government must also meet the elected representatives of the departmental council, where she will sign a “financial agreement” with the State which should provide 100 million euros in 2024 for early childhood, whose expenses are exploding in the face of demographic growth of 4% per year. Elected officials want to see this aid sustained. Élisabeth Borne will visit the only hospital in Mayotte, which is seriously lacking in caregivers.

Emmanuel Macron, the President of the Republic, who came in 2019, had promised the construction of a second establishment. On the health side, the Prime Minister should announce aid of 240 million euros to extend and modernize this Mayotte hospital center which provides 70% of care, but also the confirmation of a second hospital in Combani, the development of the offer training for caregivers, with a second Nursing Training Institute (IFSI), as well as increased bonuses and compensation for caregivers and doctors.