France sends top ministers to reconnect with people on Reunion Island

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has travelled to Reunion Island to “understand” and address the “daily preoccupations” of residents living in the Indian Ocean overseas department.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne speaks to the press in Salazie, on the French Indian Ocean island of La Reunion, on May 11, 2023. AFP - EMMANUEL DUNAND

Accompanied by four ministers, Borne's three-day visit is part of the government’s attempt to reconnect with French people following the contentious passage of its pension reform.

The ministers were met by a large police presence and protesters, some banging pots and pans.

Trade unions and the hard-left France Unbowed movement have called for pan-bashing protesters to accompany her throughout her visit, and the Interior Ministry has indicated there is no intention to ban them.

• Why are people being driven from the postcard paradise of the Comoros?

More than a third of the island’s 860,000 residents live below the poverty line, with 230,000 people receiving the RSA minimum income benefit reserved for the unemployed or underemployed.

According to the Insee statistics institute, inflation went up 3.9 percent over the last year in Reunion Island, with a 1.6 percent increase in food prices, which are already 37 percent higher than in mainland France.

Borne, along with the environment, agriculture, housing and overseas ministers, has a busy schedule, with the focus being on “daily life and the preoccupations of residents of the Island”, the Prime Minister’s office said.

However, there are no plans for Borne to visit Mayotte, France’s department on the other side of Madagascar from Reunion, where the government is clearing slums and evicting undocumented migrants back to the neighbouring Comoros islands.

(with AFP)