Immigration, European elections… These objectives of Marine Le Pen’s trip to Reunion and Mayotte

The head of the National Rally deputies landed in Reunion on Wednesday morning, before a visit to the island of Mayotte. With a dual objective: to denounce the “migrant overwhelm” and to support his party’s candidate in the European elections, Jordan Bardella.

Marine le Pen’s trip overseas, which begins Wednesday April 17, comes in a particular context, just after the launch of the “Mayotte place net” operation to fight against insecurity and illegal immigration. Enough to question the team of the head of the National Rally deputies: was it the arrival of Marine Le Pen that pushed the government to act more quickly? But this seems unlikely, since the continuation of operation “Wuambushu” had already been announced for mid-April.

It would rather seem that it is Marine Le Pen who models her dates on this operation. The RN deputy “a lot to say about handling the situation”assures his entourage, who jokes about the“communication operation” of the government, and on the means deemed insufficient while Gérald Darmanin promised a “iron Curtain” between the Comoros and Mayotte.

During this trip, the RN representative notably planned to talk about insecurity and immigration with groups of angry residents. Mayotte is in fact a perfect playground for Marine Le Pen who sees it as an illustration of “migratory submergence” which would threaten the whole of France, according to her.

Meeting of candidate Jordan Bardella in the presence of Marine Le Pen

But this trip to Mayotte and Reunion also has another objective: the next European elections. It is also presented as a campaign trip with a meeting Wednesday evening in Saint-Denis of Jordan Bardella, head of the party list. The latter came well ahead in both islands 5 years ago. As did Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential election, in Reunion, which notably benefited from a large postponement of voters who had preferred Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round.

The left is much better established in Reunion, so opposite, the RN is trying to rally more and more local elected officials. For this, it will be a question of purchasing power, agriculture, fishing, but also religions. Marine Le Pen wants to show Reunion as an example where eight religions coexist within an inter-religious dialogue group.