Charles Luylier with AFP // Photo credit: Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP
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2:00 p.m., May 11, 2023
Elisabeth Borne began her first overseas trip on Thursday, a three-day stay in Reunion which she began with the inauguration of a France Service house and discussions with residents of the town of Salazie, in the center . The Prime Minister arrived shortly after 7 a.m. local time (5 a.m. French time) in Saint-Denis-de-La Réunion. The procession left the airport area under an imposing police force, avoiding the dozens of demonstrators, some with saucepans, who were waiting for its arrival.
After laying a wreath at the War Memorial in Saint-Denis, Elisabeth Borne went to Salazie, in the center of the island. Still surrounded by an imposing security system, she visited a water transfer project there (underground aqueduct) before inaugurating a France Service house in this town, which is one of the poorest on the island, with an unemployment rate of 48%, according to its mayor.
“Moments of exchanges with Reunionese people”
“This approach (France Service) makes it possible to reverse a trend that we have had for decades where everyone saw public services move away”, welcomed the Prime Minister, who then exchanged with residents and elected officials of the common. Many topics – opening up, housing, agriculture, public school transport – were discussed during an hour of polite exchanges.
“I am a ward of the nation and I am Prime Minister. It is possible in our country and it is important that it be for all young people, wherever they are born”, concluded Élisabeth Borne, who must s talk in the afternoon with the President of the Departmental Council, Cyril Melchior, and the President of the Regional Council, Huguette Bello, before an evening meeting with local economic players.
“My goal is to have moments of exchange with Reunionese and Reunionese” and “sweep away all areas of concern”. “It is an overseas territory which has tremendous assets, and at the same time very significant challenges,” she explained on Thursday.
Pots throughout the tour
A clear desire to get in touch with the population in a context of persistent contestation of the pension reform and disrupted official travel. The unions and La France insoumise launched calls for protest, pans in hand, throughout the visit. But the noise of the pans has not yet reached the Prime Minister.
Without an absolute majority in the Assembly, weakened by the use of 49.3 on pensions, Elisabeth Borne faces a most uncertain political equation, with a new imposing and changing government roadmap – the executive has changed again timetable on the immigration aspect- and a presidential review clause set for July 14.
It is this roadmap, which extends beyond the “hundred days” decreed by the Head of State, that Elisabeth Borne will present in Reunion. Upstream of an interministerial committee on overseas planned “in the coming weeks”, according to Matignon.
In this French department in the Indian Ocean, where according to INSEE, 36% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line and where pensions are the lowest in France, the pension reform has raised strong dissatisfaction. On January 31, 10,000 people had responded to the call to demonstrate launched by the local inter-union.