“This emergency law is just the beginning”: the Assembly adopts the text for the reconstruction of Mayotte after the passage of cyclone Chido

This Wednesday, January 22, 2025, the deputies adopted the emergency bill aimed at rebuilding the Mayotte archipelago, devastated after the passage of cyclone Chido.

The emergency bill for the reconstruction of Mayotte was adopted by the deputies on Wednesday with a near-unanimous vote, despite criticism from many elected officials who considered it “insufficient”, five weeks after the devastating passage of cyclone Chido.

“A beginning”

“This emergency law for Mayotte is only a beginning, a technical text that is only a primer for reconstruction”, declared the rapporteur and Mayotte deputy Estelle Youssouffa before the vote. This bill, the first of the Bayrou government to pass the test of the hemicycle, mainly contains relaxations of urban planning rules and social measures.

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However, on Tuesday, January 21, the National Assembly almost unanimously removed a provision from the emergency bill to rebuild Mayotte that, under the guise of promoting development or rehousing projects, would have facilitated expropriations on the island ravaged by Cyclone Chido.

By 166 votes in favor and only one against (and 45 abstentions), the deputies removed the article from 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.

With its project, the government did not intend “to expropriate or occupy the land without compensating”, but avoid “being blocked by the definitive identification of the owners which can take several years before being able to launch operations”, pleaded the former Prime 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 on Wednesday afternoon. Despite the criticism, its adoption left 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 the reconstruction. It also contains social measures, such as tax breaks or reductions in contributions.