Angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood damaged by Cyclone Chido heckled French president Emmanuel Macron, who replied they would be in “deeper s**t” without France as he toured the Indian Ocean archipelago on Friday.
Nearly a week after the storm hit, the lack of potable water was testing nerves in France’s poorest overseas territory.
“Seven days and you’re not able to give water to the population!” one man shouted at Mr Macron.
“Don’t set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we’re screwed,” Mr Macron told the crowd in the Tsingoni neighbourhood.
‘We need Macron to act.’ The view in Mayotte, the French island territory steamrolled by cyclone Chido
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“You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be in way deeper s**t, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help.”
In the past, Mr Macron has often got in trouble with off-the-cuff remarks in public that he says are meant to “tell it like it is” but have often come across as insensitive or condescending to many French people and contributed to his sharp drop in popularity over his seven years as president.
Back home, opposition politicians pounced on the comments.
“I don’t think the president is exactly finding the right words of comfort for our Mayotte compatriots, who, with this kind of expression, always have the feeling of being treated differently,” Sebastien Chenu of the far-right National Rally said.
Hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said Mr Macron’s comment was “completely undignified”.
Officials in Mayotte have been able to confirm only 35 fatalities from Chido, but some have said they fear thousands could have been killed.
Some of the islands’ worst-affected neighbourhoods, hillside shantytowns comprising flimsy huts that are home to undocumented migrants, have not yet been reached by rescue workers.
Mr Macron, who had extended his visit to Mayotte to spend more time surveying the damage from the worst storm to hit the territory in 90 years, responded that authorities were scaling up distributions.
“I understand your impatience. You can count on me,” he said.
The French state spends about €1.6 billion a year on Mayotte, or about 8 per cent of the budget for overseas territories and €4,900 per inhabitant, compared with €7,200 for people in Reunion Island or €8,500 for people in Guadeloupe, according to official 2023 budget documents.
Some in Tsingoni greeted Mr Macron more positively, thanking him for coming to see them. A 70-year-old woman offered a blessing while patting him on the head.
The previous evening, Mr Macron replied testily to a jeering crowd that chanted for his resignation and accused his government of neglecting Mayotte, which is located 8,000km from France.
He told reporters on Friday that France had invested heavily in Mayotte but that its institutions could not keep up with arrivals of undocumented migrants.
Concerns about immigration have helped make the territory a stronghold for the far-right National Rally, with 60 per cent voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election run-off.
Mr Macron later led a crisis meeting of officials before departing in the afternoon for Djibouti, where he will share a Christmas meal with French troops stationed there.
Authorities have warned it will be difficult to establish a precise death toll, in part because some victims were buried immediately in accordance with Muslim tradition.
The many undocumented migrants from Comoros, Madagascar and other countries also complicate matters. Official statistics put Mayotte’s population at 321,000, but many say it is much higher.
Three out of four people live below the national poverty line in Mayotte, which remains heavily dependent on support from France. – Reuters