French PM visits Mayotte to speed up 'slow' reconstruction after cyclone

While Mayotte's children returned to school on Monday, Lecornu said there was still a need to build and renovate schools following the deadly cyclone, which struck on 14 December, 2024.

He also raised the issue of delays in the delivery or opening of public facilities.

“These difficulties fuel an impatience that I understand and share,” he wrote in a letter to the mayors of the French Indian Ocean territory on Monday, adding that progress with the reconstruction was "too slow".

A law passed in August last year provides €4bn in funding over five years to repair damage caused by the cyclone, which devastated the archipelago and killed at least 40 people.

But only 12 percent of the funding committed and allocated for 2026 has been spent, the government said.

Lecornu promised to get projects approved under the law up and running.

Despite the delays, he stressed the “definitive and irreversible nature” of projects set out in the law, including a second hospital, a new airport, a second prison and a desalination plant.

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Immigration issues

This is Lecornu's first visit to France's overseas territories since he became prime minister in autumn 2025.

He is expected to visit a security post and an urban renewal area, and meet schoolchildren.

He is also due to address the Mayotte Assembly and meet mayors to discuss reconstruction efforts.

Leading trade unions, including the CFDT and CGT have called for strikes and demonstrations during his visit.

Unions are demanding higher wages to compensate for the high cost of living, as well as equal rights for residents of France's overseas territories. 

In  his letter, Lecornu referred to upcoming decisions on tackling illegal immigration. Around half of Mayotte's 323,000 residents are foreign nationals, according to France's national statistics agency Insee. Most of them are from neighbouring Comoros.

Anchya Bamana, an MP from the far-right National Rally, has called on the prime minister to dismantle the Tsoundzou 2 camp, where more than 1,000 asylum seekers live in poor conditions. She also called for a French Navy vessel to be deployed to improve surveillance of the coast.

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Presidential candidate visits

A number of leading politicians have begun visiting the predominantly Muslim territory, where far-right leader Marine Le Pen won 59 percent of the vote in the second round of the 2022 presidential election.

She is expected to remain the favourite in Mayotte in the 2027 presidential election in April and May

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Former prime minister Edouard Philippe, a candidate for the centre-right Horizons party, visited Mayotte last week and made a series of proposals aimed at “closing the immigration floodgates” on the archipelago, prompting criticism from the left.

Republican presidential candidate Bruno Retailleau visited before the March local elections to denounce a state that “no longer responds to emergencies” over insecurity and “migratory pressure”.

Lecornu has promised to return to the archipelago in early 2027 and set up an inter-ministerial monitoring committee before then.

(with newswires)