First text debated in the National Assembly of the Bayrou government, the deputies agreed to delete an article of the emergency law to rebuild Mayotte. An article that would have allowed the expropriation by the State of certain lands.
The National Assembly deleted this Tuesday, January 21st, almost unanimously, a provision of the emergency bill to rebuild Mayotte which, under the guise of promoting development or rehousing projects, would have facilitated expropriations on the island ravaged by cyclone Chido.
By 166 votes for and only one against (and 45 abstentions), the deputies deleted the article of the bill by which the government would have been authorized to order “the definitive expropriation of land in Mayotte, with the aim of facilitating” construction sites there.
This would have allowed “the State to get its hands on the land”
For the rapporteur, the deputy (LIOT) of Mayotte Estelle Youssouffa, “the State has been trying to get its hands on the land” in the archipelago for several decades, and “the aim of this article was really to be able to expropriate in Mayotte to build anything and carry out projects that have nothing to do with the cyclone”.
A statement strongly denied by the Minister for Overseas Territories: Manuel Valls tried to explain, without success, that this provision was necessary due to local specificities which make it “almost impossible” to identify the owners of certain land. “Many Mahorais have continued informal transfers of property in a completely legal but untraceable manner for the public authorities”, he stressed.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000The government wanted to compensate so as not to be “blocked”
With its project, the government did not intend to “expropriate or occupy land without compensating”, but to avoid “being blocked by the definitive identification of owners which can take several years before being able to launch operations”, argued the former Prime Minister minister.
The detailed examination of this emergency bill for Mayotte, the first text of the Bayrou government to be debated in the hemicycle, ended on Tuesday evening, before a formal vote scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. Despite the criticism, its adoption leaves little doubt in view of the imperative to accelerate the reconstruction of the archipelago.
The text mainly contains provisions aimed at derogating from urban planning rules and facilitating the financing of reconstruction. It also contains social measures, such as tax breaks or reductions in contributions.
The question of immigration debated in another law
The deputies thus approved several amendments aimed at ensuring that local Mayotte companies are more solicited to take part in the reconstruction work. In particular, they specified that a third of public contracts should be reserved for local SMEs.
In order to encourage donations from individuals intended for the reconstruction of the archipelago, they also increased from 1,000 to 3,000 euros the maximum amount of donations that can give rise to a tax reduction increased to 75%. However, no article concerns the issue of migration, which must be addressed in a subsequent law, as Manuel Valls has repeated.
The subject nevertheless crept into the debates on Tuesday evening, sparking lively exchanges around an amendment tabled by the Green MP Dominique Voynet, who knows Mayotte for having headed the Regional Health Agency there. Dominique Voynet proposed that the residence permits of foreigners legally present in Mayotte before Cyclone Chido be “tacitly renewed“, this because logistical difficulties prevent the prefecture from processing renewal applications.
This proposal angered Estelle Youssouffa: this “grandiose call for air” amounts to telling the Mahorais “you are on your knees, nothing works anymore, but we must continue to welcome”, she asserted. For reasons that were “more technical than political” the government also said it was opposed to this amendment, which was ultimately rejected by 140 votes to 85.