'If it wasn't for France, you would be...': Macron swears in angry exchange with residents of cyclone-hit Mayotte

Angry residents of a Mayotte neighbourhood damaged by Cyclone Chido heckled French President Emmanuel Macron, who replied they would be in “deeper shit” 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 Macron.

“Don’t set people against each other. If you set people against each other, we’re screwed,” Macron told the crowd in the Tsingoni neighbourhood.

“You are happy to be in France. If it wasn’t for France, you would be in way deeper shit, 10,000 times more, there is no place in the Indian Ocean where people receive more help.”

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In the past, 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 lawmakers 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, a lawmaker from the far-right National Rally, said.

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Hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said Macron’s comment was “completely undignified”.

Officials in Mayotte have only been able to confirm 35 fatalities from Chido, but some have said they fear thousands could have been killed.

Some of the islands’ worst-affected neighbourhoods, hillside shantytowns comprised of flimsy huts that are home to undocumented migrants, have not yet been reached by rescue workers.

Worst storm in 90 years

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 euros per year on Mayotte, or about 8% of the budget for overseas territories and 4,900 euros per inhabitant, compared with 7,200 euros people in Reunion Island or 8,500 euros for people in Guadeloupe, according to official 2023 budget documents.

Some in Tsingoni greeted 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, Macron replied testily to a jeering crowd that chanted for his resignation and accused his government of neglecting Mayotte, which is located some 8,000 km (5,000 miles) from metropolitan 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% voting for Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential election runoff.

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.

We need water

Ali Djimoi, who lives in the Kaweni shantytown on the outskirts of the capital Mamoudzou, said Mayotte had been “completely abandoned” by the French state.

“The water running out the pipes - even if it’s working you can’t drink it, it comes out dirty,” he told Reuters.

Djimoi said eight people in his immediate neighbourhood were killed in the storm, two of whom were quickly buried close to a mosque.

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 metropolitan France.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said 80 tons of food and 50 tons of water were distributed on Thursday in nine of Mayotte’s 17 communes and that the remaining eight would receive provisions on Friday.

“Everything has been put in place to allow the distribution of 600,000 litres of water per day, or two litres per Mayotte resident,” he said on X.

Aboubacar Ahamada Mlachahi, a 34-year-old construction worker whose house was destroyed by the cyclone and is now squatting on a hillside near the freight port, was one of many people struggling to secure basic needs.

“What matters first is water, for the children. Before fixing the houses, before fixing anything, the daily life… We need water,” he told Reuters.

The islands, close to the Comoros archipelago, first came under France’s control in 1841. In 1974, Mayotte voted to stay French at the same time the three main Comoro islands opted to form an independent state.

Chido also killed at least 73 people in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi after reaching continental Africa, according to officials in those countries.