The President of the Constitutional Council estimated, Wednesday February 14, that the abolition of land rights in Mayotte, which the government announced as part of a future constitutional reform, raised the question of “the indivisibility of the Republic”. Questioned on Wednesday on this subject on Franceinfo, Laurent Fabius, in fact, replied that we would have to see what problem this text “poses in relation to the indivisibility of the Republic”.
“Because we say that the situation in Mayotte is specific, we need a specific text. But, at the same time, the Republic is one and indivisible,” he recalled. Before adding: “So how does that fit together? I'm not giving the answer today, but obviously that's one of the questions. » According to article 89 of the Constitution, a constitutional revision requires an agreement of both chambers (Assembly and Senate) before adoption by a three-fifths majority of parliamentarians meeting in Congress or by referendum.
Mr. Fabius, however, recalled that the Constitutional Council was “not consulted” during a revision of the Constitution. In its jurisprudence, the Council considers that the “constituent power” (parliamentarians or people) is “sovereign”, and therefore that it does not have to control the constitutionality of a constitutional law. Article 89 introduces only two limits: “The republican form of government cannot be subject to revision” and “no revision procedure can be initiated or continued when the integrity of the territory is undermined ".
Questioning “the belonging” of the island to France, according to the Comoros
The Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, announced on Sunday a project to revise the Constitution to remove the right of soil in the French department of the Indian Ocean facing a serious migration crisis as well as a social and security climate explosive, explaining that this right is a factor of attraction for emigrants coming from neighboring Comoros.
“We are entitled to wonder if the stated desire to abolish land rights in Mayotte would not, finally, be the beginning of a questioning of the so-called belonging of the island of Mayotte to France” , reacted the Comorian government, in a press release released late Tuesday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The measure planned by the French government, limited to the territory of Mayotte, "calls into question the history of France and the principles which founded the Republic", agrees the Comoros, which claims the island remains in the French fold, while In 1975 Moroni chose independence.
Mayotte has 310,000 inhabitants, according to the Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) – a figure largely underestimated, according to the regional chamber of accounts – including 48% immigrants from the Comoros and other African countries. . Most arrive clandestinely on French territory aboard traditional fishing boats from the Comorian island of Anjouan, 70 kilometers away. Many then settle in unsanitary bangas (huts) in the slums.
A situation, which has since fueled tensions between Paris and Moroni, maintained, according to the Comoros, “in defiance of international law and relevant UN resolutions”. “The Comoros will never stop claiming Mayotte,” the Comorian foreign ministry repeated in its statement. Located at the mouth of the Mozambique Channel, the archipelago is made up of the three islands of Grande Comore, Anjouan and Mohéli.
