Saint-Denis of Reunion (AFP)

Emmanuel Macron, expected on the issue of employment and expensive life on the second day of his trip to Reunion, made a surprise visit Thursday morning in a district of Saint-Denis where residents denounced "the expensive life" , against a backdrop of a call to the general strike.

"For now it's wind", "Right in his boots": some of the local dailies were circumspect Thursday morning, after first announcements the day before to enhance the attractiveness of the territory, after which the mayor PS Saint-Denis Gilbert Annette hoped that Mr. Macron "will respond more concretely" during his trip.

A call for a general strike is launched for the day by unions hoping to mobilize to denounce "the social situation", with a rally in Saint-Denis.

The head of state had admitted from his arrival Wednesday on the island that in 2018 the territory had "one of the most vigorous" movements of "yellow vests" against the high cost of living and social inequality, fruit of 'an "anger expressed (...) about the difficulties of everyday life".

Thursday morning, to "understand what works and what does not work", he made a surprise visit to the renovated district of Camellias.

To the inhabitants who questioned him, sometimes strongly, complaining of "social injustice", the cost of living and housing, too low pensions or the "scourge" of drugs, he answered job and education.

He said he wanted to "boost the jobs franks", a device to promote the hiring of unemployed neighborhoods of politics of the city. "We need to go much further so that the young and old who come from neighborhoods and are long-term unemployed are very cheap for the company that hires them," he said.

We must also continue to halve the number of pupils per class in neighborhoods in difficulty and develop French language instruction for children who "do not speak it well" on their arrival at school. He underlines.

- 40% below the poverty line -

"We are taken for sheep," said a woman, accusing the head of state to come "for elections" and asking what he "would do" against the President of the National Rally Marine Le Pen during of the presidential election of 2022.

"I do not know what you're insinuating, I'm not in the election, I'm in the middle of my term, so I'm in action, at work," he said.

In this territory of more than 850,000 inhabitants, 40% of the population lives below the poverty line, the unemployment rate reaches 24%, and even 42% among young people. And the cost of living for an average household budget Reunion is increased by 7.1% compared to the metropolis, according to INSEE, while Reunion's median income is 30% lower at the national level (AFD, 2015) .

The head of state, who had made a first crowd bath on his arrival, with a few hundred people, under a torrential rain in Saint-Denis, will have two new opportunities to go to the contacts of the Reunionese Thursday.

In particular, he must meet jobseekers in a local mission in Saint-Paul (north-west), and meet with participants in the "citizen representations" set up after the "yellow vests" crisis, and in particular some which have been integrated in the Observatory of Margins and Income Prices (OPMR).

For his part, Emmanuel Macron launched an "action plan" in the presence of about fifty major French and foreign investors, during an economic forum "Choose The Meeting" ("Choose The Meeting"), intended to strengthen the attractiveness of the territory and "re-register Reunion fully" in the Indo-Pacific area, with the priority of developing physical and digital infrastructure, the protection of biodiversity or the construction of a sustainable fisheries sector.

© 2019 AFP