This time, there were no traditional flower necklaces to welcome the visitors. No shengué welcome song. And no mingling with the crowd while delivering messages of praise, as was the case last June on his last visit to France's overseas territory of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. At the time, just after the launch of Operation Wuambushu to combat crime, illegal immigration and substandard housing, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had been described by the crowd as "the man for the job."

On Sunday, February 11, his return to Mayotte came amid a wave of anger. Over the past three weeks, protestors have blocked roads to denounce crime and illegal immigration. Darmanin was greeted with boos and jeers from just over 400 demonstrators kept at a distance, many of them from mothers' groups, wearing traditional salouva dress.

To mark the end of the crisis and give further "proof of love" to the territory's inhabitants, known as Mahorais, Darmanin announced what he called "extremely strong measures." The day before taking the plane, he had teased his visit in a video by addressing the population: "Help me restore public peace, let's talk, let's work together."

Very upset, various groups denounced "a lack of respect" before his arrival. "The government doesn't want to hear the cries of the Mahorais," said Saïd Kambi, one of the leaders of the Forces Vives movement. The slow pace of the government reshuffle reinforced this belief – it took one month to appoint a new minister for overseas territories.

Meanwhile, far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who earned her highest score in the first round of the 2022 presidential election in Mayotte (42.68%), seized the opportunity on Friday to castigate the government, speaking of "a totally abandoned population of Mayotte" in the face of a "quasi-civil war."

To quell this long-simmering anger on an island of 310,000 inhabitants where, according to the national statistics institute, in 2017 almost half of the population was foreign, Darmanin solemnly launched his series of promises as soon as he got off the plane: "The president of the Republic has instructed me to tell the Mahorais that we are going to take a radical decision, which is to include the end of birthright citizenship in Mayotte in a constitutional amendment."

"It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not the child of a French parent," the minister explained. "We will cut off the archipelago's attractivity [to immigrants]." The measure had been called for years by most of Mayotte's elected representatives and its population.

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