Parliament definitively adopts the bill to "rebuild Mayotte", seven months after Chido

A final vote in favor of the Senate, 228 votes to 16 , allowed this text to pass. It now awaits promulgation by the President of the Republic.

This text will constitute "a step towards better protection for the Mahorais, towards real equality, towards concrete and powerful development of the territory in the service of the population" , welcomed Manuel Valls, the Minister of Overseas Territories.

This "program law" sets out in particular 4 billion euros of public investments over six years and enshrines social convergence in law for the first time, that is to say the alignment of social rights with the amounts of mainland France , with a horizon of 2031.

In Mayotte, 77% of the population lives below the national poverty line , and the RSA, for example, is still twice as low.

The last piece of legislation to pass through Parliament before the summer break, it concludes a rather fruitful extraordinary parliamentary session for the government, which managed to pass several bills despite its lack of a majority in the National Assembly.

This law to "rebuild Mayotte" , the result of a compromise between deputies and senators , was validated on Wednesday by the deputies, with the support of the government coalition and the extreme right. The National Rally, highly mobilized during the debates, even claimed "a political victory" .

But the left, in both the Assembly and the Senate, was split between opposition and abstention, notably calling into question the bill's "obsession" with immigration, several parliamentarians accused.

The text in fact tackles two "scourges" , the fight against illegal immigration and illegal housing, "otherwise" Mayotte risks being rebuilt on "sand" , in the words of Manuel Valls.

For example, it plans to tighten the conditions for obtaining a residence permit, even though nearly half of the population is foreign. Several provisions will facilitate the destruction of shanty towns , even though a third of the housing is informal.

For example, one measure allows for an exemption from the obligation to provide rehousing at the time of an evacuation.

Expectations of the Mahorais

"In Mayotte, common law no longer applies. It has become a security laboratory where laws are tested that would never be applied elsewhere in France," said Green Party senator Antoinette Guhl.

The bill also provides for several highly anticipated measures in the archipelago.

First, the abolition by 2030 of the territorialized visa , which prevents a holder of a Mahoran residence permit from coming to mainland France. The Mahorans see this as an injustice and a lack of solidarity from metropolitan France in the face of the massive influx of illegal immigrants, particularly from the neighboring Comoros.

A comprehensive population census in Mayotte by 2025 is also enshrined in law. For years, local officials have argued that the population is underestimated, resulting in communities that are less well-resourced than they should be and overburdened public services.

Another victory for Mahoran elected officials was the removal of the article facilitating expropriations to allow the construction of so-called essential infrastructure. This measure, ardently defended by the government and initially passed by the Senate, sparked an outcry across the archipelago, with Mahoran residents worried about state control over land.

"Unprecedented," "massive , " "historic" —the government has no shortage of laudatory adjectives to describe the bill. But for some parliamentarians, it overlooks many development issues, particularly those related to water, the ecological transition, and health.

Mahoran MP Anchya Bamana, who sits in the RN group, for example, pointed out that Mayotte is still living under a regime of water cuts, before saying: "How can you justify 1 billion to bathe in the Seine? But nothing to address the urgent need for access to drinking water for the Mahorais."