French President Emmanuel Macron has faced jeers from locals on the cyclone-battered French overseas territory of Mayotte, telling them they should be “happy to be in France, because if it wasn’t France you’d be 10,000 times even more in the s***.”
Macron has come under fire for his handling of Cyclone Chido, which ripped across Mayotte last weekend inflicting destruction that has been likened to an atomic bomb, and his comments only risk exacerbating anger from locals who are without water or electricity.
Opposition politicians say France has neglected the archipelago and has failed to anticipate how to fortify the islands in anticipation for natural disasters linked to climate change, such as Chido – a category 4 storm that flattened neighborhoods, knocked out electrical grids, crushed hospitals and schools and damaged the airport’s control tower.
The cyclone tore through the southwestern Indian Ocean last weekend, impacting northern Madagascar before rapidly intensifying and slamming Mayotte with winds above 220 kilometers per hour (136 miles per hour), according to France’s weather service. It was the strongest storm to hit the islands in more than 90 years, Meteo-France said.
Macron began the conversation on Thursday by expressing that he had come to Mayotte to listen and engage in dialogue with residents, who he acknowledged had lived through “something horrible.” But as the crowd began to scoff, he changed his tone.
Macron has been met with anger by many of the residents he visited during his two-day trip to Mayotte. Many say they feel there is a lack of support from Paris following the disaster.
“The water isn’t there, no services are there. After six days, is that normal?” one man angrily asked him on Thursday.
Another woman, clearly distressed, told Macron that the archipelago “needs him.”
“Everything is demolished. We need you – there is nothing in Mayotte. We have young children, we are without water, without electricity,” she said.
Meanwhile, right-wing politicians, including acting Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau of the conservative Les Republicains party, have pointed the finger at illegal immigration, which they say has impoverished Mayotte and left it with vast shanty towns vulnerable to extreme weather, Reuters reported.
The worst damage was to those informal settlements and shacks.
These neighborhoods are home to many of the roughly 100,000 undocumented migrants who live in Mayotte, according to France’s interior ministry.
Located about 5,000 miles from Paris, Mayotte is the poorest place in the European Union and has struggled with unemployment, violence and a deepening migration crisis.
Around 77% of Mayotte’s population live below the national poverty line, making it the poorest department in France. The poverty rate in Mayotte is five times higher than that of mainland France, according to government figures.
In recent decades, tens of thousands of people from neighboring Comoros and Madagascar have come to Mayotte seeking better economic conditions and access to the French welfare system.
Authorities in Mayotte are continuing their relief operations, with many of the supplies arriving via an air bridge from France’s other Indian Ocean territory, Reunion Island.
In addition to the 31 confirmed deaths, the local prefecture said Wednesday it had recorded 1,373 people with light injuries, with a complete list of deaths and injuries expected to take time. It is feared the death toll could still rise significantly, but authorities have said that they are currently focused on bringing survivors to safety.
Macron said the government would send additional support to Mayotte soon and that France will observe a day of national mourning on Monday.