Although he recognizes that the Indian Ocean island is hit by a migration crisis, Manuel Valls maintains that “soil law” is not “responsible for the chaos that reigns in Mayotte”.
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“It is a useless, ineffective and dangerous reform”, castigates Wednesday February 21, 2024 on France Inter Manuel Valls, former socialist Prime Minister on the subject of the constitutional revision project intended to abolish land law in Mayotte – reform desired by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin. The former Prime Minister believes that such a reform “will not solve serious problems” what the 101st French department knows. “Be careful not to touch it through constitutional reforms which seem risky to me”he warns.
Although he recognizes that the Indian Ocean island is hit by a migration crisis, Manuel Valls maintains that “the right of the soil” is not “responsible for the chaos that reigns in Mayotte”. On the contrary, he considers that “making one believe [cela]we are opening a Pandora’s box that is extremely dangerous for our national debate.” The former head of the executive recalls that two years ago “800 minors obtained French nationality, compared to 2 800 in 2018″ due in part “of the 2019 law which restricted land law”. And according to Manuel Valls, this decrease has not “not resolved the migration problems”.
A “triple divide that is geographical, historical and symbolic”
Manuel Valls explains that this “extremely difficult situation” is rather due to the fact that the island is certainly “the poorest department in our country”but that it is also “the richest territory in this region”. He therefore pleads for “more strength”also for “additional resources and a balance of power with the Comoros”.
The former socialist Prime Minister fears that a total abolition of land rights in Mayotte “opens a triple divide, at the same time geographical, historical and symbolic”. “This opens a debate on what the Nation is”, he specifies. Manuel Valls highlights the “assimilationist dimension” of the law of the soil. “We have real problems of integration and assimilation, but not because of the rights of the soil. Because we have not made the necessary efforts through school, symbols, so that everyone can feel French and love France”he adds.
