French far-right leader Marine Le Pen registered her highest score in the first round of the 2022 presidential election in the overseas French department of Mayotte, an Indian Ocean archipelago located 8,000 km from Paris.
The leader of the Rassemblement National (National Rally or RN) party received 42.68 percent of the vote in Mayotte, which voted overwhelmingly in a 2009 referendum to become France's 101st department (and its fifth overseas).
Le Pen's showing in Mayotte, which lies between Madagascar and the African continent, even exceeded her tally in her party’s traditional bastions of Aisne (39.27 percent) and Pas-de-Calais (38.68 percent) in northern France. She also significantly outperformed her two main rivals, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon (23.96 percent) and President Emmanuel Macron (16.94 percent).
Now on her third presidential campaign, Le Pen is seeing a big boost in Mayotte after a modest start: she garnered just 2.77 percent of the vote during her first bid in 2012. By the first round of her 2017 run at the Élysée Palace her support had rocketed to 27.19 percent, followed by 42.89 percent in the second round – although Macron beat her to take the presidency.
‘Hot buttons’ of insecurity, immigration
Thani Mohamed Soilihi, a senator for Mayotte from the Rassemblement des démocrates, progressistes et indépendants (Democrats, Progressive and Independents Group), is “unfortunately, not very surprised” by a result that “follows on from the European elections” of 2019, where Le Pen’s party took more than 45 percent of the vote in Mayotte.
According to Mohamed Soilihi, Le Pen “fans the embers" with her speeches on immigration and insecurity.
“This easy, populist discourse appeals locally. That's what explains her high score,” he told FRANCE 24.
The RN’s favourite themes strike a chord with many Mahorais, he explained. According to a November 2021 report on living conditions and security in Mayotte by France’s national statistics institute INSEE, the archipelago suffers from an “above-normal” level of crime. In 2018 and 2019, crime in every domain – burglaries, theft, and physical and sexual violence – far exceeded the figures for mainland France. Some 18 percent of homes had been burgled at least once in those two years.
“The inhabitants of Mayotte are three times more likely to be victims of theft, either with or without violence,” the report stated.
According to INSEE, 48 percent of Mahorais feel unsafe even in their homes while 52 percent feel unsafe in their neighbourhoods. And these figures are increasing year after year.
Mayotte is also the poorest territory of France. According to the French NGO l’observatoire des inégalités (Inequality Observatory), half of the population in Mayotte lives on less than €260 per month while around 10 percent of the island's population lives on less than €1 a day.
Illegal immigration is also a cause for concern for the population of Mayotte. Boats from the Comoros arrive every day and exasperate the Mahorais, who see the influx as the source of many ills. In a February 2019 report, INSEE found that between “significant immigration from the Comoros” and the departure of “Mayotte natives to the outside world”, 48 percent of the department's population was non-native in 2017, a figure 8 percent higher than in 2012.
This is good news for Le Pen, who spoke at length about these issues during her visit to the archipelago in December 2021.
“Mayotte is almost a laboratory of horrors. (...) This is our future if nothing is done,” she declared in front of voters, many of whom had already been won over.
Misunderstood on the mainland
Mohamed Soilihi, who supports Macron, acknowledges that Mayotte has seen “very hard times in recent years” but lays the blame on past inaction.
“There is an element of injustice, the result of several years of ineffective action. If previous governments had dealt with these scourges as Macron has done, we wouldn't be where we are today.”
He cites a significant reduction in the number of people living below the poverty line, from 84 percent to 77 percent, during the past five years under Macron.
But some voters feel a different president might do even more.
“The Mahorais feel abandoned. The result is consistent with what is happening. It was important to have a candidate who took into account our fears, our difficulties. Le Pen is the one who convinced us,” explained Daniel Zaïdani, a local politician, speaking to the TV channel Mayotte La 1ère on the night of the first round of voting.
“Emmanuel Macron has shown limitations in relation to what we need,” remarked Zaïdani, who served as president of Mayotte’s General Council from 2011 to 2015 and has since thrown his support behind Le Pen.
While Le Pen spent three days in Mayotte at the end of 2021, Macron contented himself with a video and a letter to the Mahorais and the Overseas Territories on March 17.
Macron’s relationship with Mayotte has at times been fraught. On a visit to an Atlantic search-and-rescue maritime centre in Brittany in June 2017, Macron made an off-hand remark about the “kwassa-kwassa”, the fast fishing boats also used for illegal migrant crossings. “The kwassa-kwassa don’t fish much, they just bring Comorians,” he joked, sparking an avalanche of indignation and criticism.
For the second round on April 24, Mohamed-Soilihi is hoping for a rebound in favour of Macron and is counting on high abstention. “There is more canvassing work to do on the ground,” he added.
Around 60 percent of the voting age population abstained in the first round, the highest rate ever recorded for a presidential election in Mayotte and exceeding the 58.78 percent seen in 2002.
The staunch support for Le Pen and her party seems incomprehensible for those on France’s mainland who are unfamiliar with the entrenched problems on Mayotte. Mocking or angry reactions have flourished on social networks following her strong showing.
“It is an anomaly that a Black population, which is more than 90 percent Muslim, would vote for an Islamophobe – a person from a party whose members regularly make speeches railing against Blacks, Arabs [and] Muslims,” Mohamed Soilihi said.
This article has been translated from the original in French.
