The emergency law for Mayotte examined in the Assembly this Monday: what do the 22 articles contain ?

On Monday, MPs will begin examining the emergency bill for Mayotte, the first text from the Bayrou government to be debated in the chamber. There is little doubt about its adoption given the imperative to accelerate the reconstruction of the archipelago devastated by Cyclone Chido.

Deemed “insufficient” by many MPs, this text – comprising 22 articles, mainly exemptions from urban planning rules and a few social measures – was widely adopted by the Economic Affairs Committee last week.

And this, even if the rapporteur of the bill, the deputy of Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa (Liot) had deplored during the debates a text drawn up “without consultation” of local elected officials, and which “remains largely silent on essential subjects such as immigration”.

The second deputy of Mayotte, Anchya Bamana (RN), had raised the same grievances, saying she was “angry” against a text “which misses its subject”, by not making it possible to fight against the “submersion migration”.

Immigration at the heart of the debates

Although evaded, and postponed to a future law “program” announced by the government in the next two months, migration issues should impose themselves in the background of the debates.

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Overseas Minister Manuel Valls – who will speak for the first time in the Palais Bourbon arena since his return to government – ​​will certainly repeat the “firm measures” to combat immigration, listed during his hearing in committee, and which will constitute, according to him, a “essential part” of the future law.

A bill aimed at restricting the right of the soil in Mayotte will also be examined on February 6, providing for an extension of the period of residence of parents for their children to access French nationality.

On Monday, MPs will have to consider articles that would allow the State to waive certain urban planning rules or facilitate funding to speed up the reconstruction of housing, but also schools, which have been badly affected.

Reconstruction of schools

One measure in the bill, for example, aims to authorise the State to ensure their construction, reconstruction or renovation in place of local authorities until 31 December 2027.

At the same time, teachers in the archipelago are returning to school, one week before their students. A return to school that has already been postponed several times, while around forty establishments have not been repaired or are still accommodating disaster victims.

No article in the bill therefore deals with migration issues, and the amendments tabled to this effect by the right and the far right have been deemed inadmissible.

The President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, admits that these questions will be dealt with later, because this text “is an emergency law” to “rebuild Mayotte quickly”.

“If you put too many things in it” then you compromise “its rapid adoption”, she argued during a trip to the archipelago on January 11.

In committee, however, several provisions voted on made left-wing MPs grind their teeth, such as this amendment by rapporteur Estelle Youssouffa, aimed at regulating the sale of sheet metal “upon presentation of an identity document”.

A measure “shocking”, according to the words of the Green MP Dominique Voynet, who abstained from voting on the entire text in committee, because this law passes “totally” by way of the issues of the “reconstruction”, according to her.

However, she did not want to hinder its adoption in view of the “catastrophic situation” in which the country is plunged the archipelago. Just like the deputies of La France insoumise, who also preferred to abstain.

The former minister, who was director of the Mayotte Regional Health Agency from 2019 to 2021, hopes, however, that several of her amendments, in particular to ensure access to drinking water in schools, will be adopted in session.