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Emmanuel Macron arrives October 22 in Mayotte, the first leg of a trip of four days in the Indian Ocean. Before joining the meeting where he will leave on October 25, the President of the Republic added an unprecedented sequence for a French head of state on the Isle of Great Glorious. An island postcard between Mayotte and Madagascar, where nature is preserved. Between immigration issues in Mayotte and purchasing power in Réunion, Emmanuel Macron also wants to talk about biodiversity.
From our special correspondent,
This is a little surprise concocted by the Elysee. An additional step in the journey of the President of the Republic on the island of Great Glorious, a tiny island off Mayotte, forty minutes north-west flight, at the entrance of the Mozambique Channel. But this tiny island has a very important feature for Emmanuel Macron, it is a French island on which no president has ever set foot.
It will therefore be the first to come on this piece of land in the middle of the Indian Ocean, close to Madagascar, which has been asking France since 1973 for the restitution of the Éparses Islands, to which the Glorieuses belong. The Malagasy President has told his French counterpart recently at a meeting of the Global Fund on AIDS in Lyon in October. Talks are under way to try to find a " common solution ".
Small islands, such big issues
If these islands arouse a lot of interest, it is because they have many assets. The only Glorious Islands where Emmanuel Macron goes, allow France, while they represent only about 7 km2 of emerged land, to have more than 43 000 km2 of territorial waters under its jurisdiction. For all the Scattered Islands, this represents 640 000 km2 of exclusive economic zone. This allows France to own two-thirds of the surface of the Mozambique Channel, a strategic area especially because of the tanker traffic, and therefore to be an important regional player.
These islands also have economic potential and this is also one of the reasons that explain the claims of the Malagasy government: this area has important fisheries resources, which makes it a privileged area for fishing. And the subsoil would contain significant hydrocarbon reserves.
Macron wants to protect biodiversity
But these islands are also of interest to scientists, because they are reference ecosystems where biodiversity is preserved. For the moment, the only inhabitants are about fifteen soldiers who take turns to guarantee the sovereignty of France. The coral reefs surrounding the islands are a unique field of observation for scientists studying global warming. There are birds, marine mammals, sea turtles that come to lay eggs. Nearly three thousand marine species have been recorded. Fishing is prohibited. A Glorieuses Marine Nature Park was created in 2012. It could become a nature reserve. These islands are an ecological sanctuary.
And it is to highlight this that Emmanuel Macron decided to go there. He is also accompanied by several scientists and personalities from the world of associations such as the former navigator Isabelle Autissier, who is now president of WWF-France. Emmanuel Macron has invested a lot in the field of environmental protection. At the G7 Biarritz , he had launched initiatives to fight fires in the Amazon rainforest. He is now taking advantage of this trip to Glorious Island to show that the preservation of the environment and biodiversity is one of his priorities in a spectacular setting, ideal for staging his action and sending messages.
Mayotte and illegal immigration
Before this environmental parenthesis, Emmanuel Macron begins his trip by Mayotte. On this island, where illegal immigration from neighboring Comoros, is a major problem - 48% of the population is foreign and 95% of these foreigners are Comorians - the President of the Republic comes to see the implementation of the operation Shikandra was presented in August by the Minister of Overseas, Annick Girardin. Shikandra is, says one at the Elysee, the name of a rather nice fish, but that bites when one approaches his nest. A revealing image of an objective: to improve the surveillance at sea with interceptor boats and to drive illegal immigrants back to the border. Twenty-two thousand people have been sent back since the beginning of the year, a record figure, according to the Elysee.
In Mayotte, Emmanuel Macron will therefore show his determination on immigration that has just been the subject of lively debate in Paris.
► To read also: Mayotte in 10 key dates: colonization, departmentalization and social crisis