The French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced a package of 3 billion euros in six years to finance a plan to “rebuild” Mayotte, the poorest department in France, which was devastated by a cyclone in December.
The most destructive cyclone that the archipelago of the Indian Ocean in 90 years hit the colossal damage in mid -December, killing 40 people and causing damage at 3.5 billion euros.
Four months after the disaster, Macron visited Mayotte to “take stock of what is being done well, which is not doing well enough,” he said as he got off the plane.
He was accompanied by his wife Brigitte and the ministers of territories, agriculture and health abroad.
“Mayotte has a future in this region if we put the resources,” Macron told lawmakers Mahoran.
Macron came with a bill to “rebuild” the archipelago that also aims to strengthen the fight against illegal immigration, illegal housing, insecurity and support the local economy.
The plan will cost € 3.2 billion, which will be spent between 2025 and 2031, with the finances of European and international sources, as well as “national funds,” Macron said.
Summer must vote in Parliament, he added.
‘More resources’
Several local legislators expressed concern about the precarious situation of the region, including the lack of water, the possible spread of Chikungunya’s disease and the delay in the implementation of promised measures after the cyclone.
Macron told them that Chikungunya’s vaccination campaign would begin on Tuesday and that interest -free loans were “on the way.”
In 2019, the president had promised a long track at the Petite Terre airport in Mayotte. On Monday, however, he said that it would not be feasible for technical reasons, instead arguing a new airport.
Mayotte attracts a large number of migrants from its poorest neighbor, the Comoros Islands, who travel there irregularly a better life.
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Around a third of the population, or more than 100,000 people, and particularly illegal immigrants from the Comoros Islands, live in precarious homes.
Macron, who on the early Monday had with agents involved in the fight against illegal immigration, told Mayotte legislators that things would change “deeply” within a year.
The French president also visited the Mamoudzou hospital, where a nurse begged “more resources, more personal, in the long term.”
Mayotte, where the French leader of the extreme right Marine Le Pen achieved one of his highest scores in the 2022 presidential elections, remains a high on the political agenda.
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