Mayotte: the French “Left’s” Hypocrisy
We hereby share an unofficial translation of an article published by La Cause du Peuple.
In December 2024, the French colony Mayotte faced the full force of the Cyclone Chido, relaunching in bourgeois media the debate on the situation of the island, and reminding us the reality of “left” social-chauvinism.
Shortly after the cyclone, Macron addressed the population of Mayotte, which was still under the rubble: “Don’t confront the people! If people are against each other, we’re screwed! Be happy to be in France! Because if it weren’t for France, you’d be 10,000 times more in shit!” No one was surprised by this colonist’s reaction from the first spokesman of French imperialism, who refuses to provide humanitarian aid worthy of that name, even though he has the means to do so.
France’s presence in Mayotte continues to be recognized as an illegal occupation by the UN, after the referendum that led to the self-determination of the Comoros, of which Mayotte was an integral part. On the “left”, the main figures of the Parties try to win over the local electorate through sentimental discourses. This is the case, in particular, of Jean-Luc Mélenchon who, during the 2022 presidential elections, declared on the channel ‘Mayotte la 1ère’: “People who are abandoned for too long feel despised, they say: ‘Why do they disappoint us like this?’ Yes, I think there’s a feeling of despise, and then something that’s breaking down and that’s more delicate, it’s called love.” One could answer yes, that there is a feeling of contempt on the part of the Mahorese for the metropolis. A feeling of legitimate contempt for a people that has been subjected to colonial oppression since the nineteenth century. But that is not what Mélenchon means.
On January 19, 2025 on RTL and Public Sénat, during the program Le Grand Jury, Jean-Luc Mélenchon launched a long diatribe in which he addressed the issue of Comorian immigration to Mayotte. In this intervention, he blamed all the responsibility on the Republic of the Comoros, stating: “Mayotte is a French department, and so the birthright applies to Mayotte as everywhere. I would add that we must not let people believe that it is enough to come to Mayotte to become French. […] You have to wait until you are 16 years old, when you were not born there, when you are not French. Which is a huge problem because among brothers some will be French and others will not. Mayotte’s problem is not a nationality problem. It’s – why are there slums everywhere? Why are there not enough resources for people to live with dignity? And there is the role of the Comoros, which does nothing and from which we are in a position to call to account and say: ‘this cannot continue like this because there are inhabitants who flee their homes to come to ours’. We have the right to tell them ‘this cannot go on like this! It’s not up to us to deal with this problem, it’s up to you! What do you need? From what level of help do you can guarantee that people will stop moving?”
Let us remember that the Maore are Comorian, that they have a language, a history, families in common, and that, in principle, even the “left” recognizes the right to free movement within their own nation. This long diatribe on “immigration” is delivered by the leader of the main parliamentary group of the “left” and not by Le Pen. This reply in which he refers to Comorian immigration as the problem of the Union of the Comoros, without pointing out the responsibility of French imperialism in the economic and political situation of the archipelago, shows everything there is to know about the anti-colonial program of the bourgeois left: there is none. In France Insoumise’s most recent election manifesto for the 2024 European elections, there is no mention of the desire to ensure self-determination for Mayotte (or even the other French colonies) or at least autonomy.
Mayotte is a colony, the Comoros is a former French colony that was arbitrarily divided by the colonizer. Even independent, the Comoros remains a country subjected to imperialism of its French neighbor. Its people would not fail to flee their own country by “graciously offering” aid to the Comoros. As long as the entire archipelago is not freed from imperialist oppression, misery will persist. All the great speeches of the parliamentary “left” have the same purpose: if it comes to power, the French colonies will remain French colonies. In the end, whether it is the head of state Macron or Mélenchon, Mayotte will remain a territory occupied by a colonial power.
The Mélenchons and others like them are proud to have a “social” program, without questioning the imperialist nature of their State. This is how Mélenchon expressed himself on Twitter on February 10, to denounce the anniversary of the “calamitous abandonment of Quebec to the English”, saying that “if Trump annexes Canada, he cannot include Quebec”, positioning himself again as the potential future leader of French imperialism. On there lies the source of the deceive of his program: the “redistribution” of wealth, the “alter-globalization” diplomacy, the historical promotion of the “Francophonie” by Mélenchon, are carried out by and for the benefit of imperialism, on the oppression of other peoples.
