France’s left-wing opposition has accused newly appointed Prime Minister François Bayrou of being an “illegitimate part-time Prime Minister” for prioritising a local municipal council meeting in Pau, where he serves as mayor, over attending an emergency meeting on the Mayotte crisis in Paris.
The local council meeting was scheduled for 6pm on December 16 and the critical crisis meeting for Mayotte was due simultaneously.
Bayrou’s office assured the public that he would participate in the Mayotte meeting via videoconference. That decision sparked outrage from opposition leaders, who questioned his commitment to national responsibilities.
Clémence Guetté, a prominent figure from the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) party, criticised Bayrou saying: “The Prime Minister will only attend the crisis meeting on Mayotte remotely. Why? Because he’s flying to Pau to fulfil his duties as mayor. The French people deserve better than an illegitimate part-time Prime Minister.”
Socialist MP Arthur Delaporte similarly denounced the decision as “disgraceful and disrespectful”.
“At a time when Mayotte is going through one of its worst tragedies, and when the Prime Minister also has to form a government, his priority is to attend its municipal council,” he said.
With prioritising the meeting in Pau, Bayrou has seemed to make it clear that he intended to continue serving as mayor of the city, a role he has held for 10 years.
His decision to retain his mayoral role is unusual for a Prime Minister. His predecessors, including Édouard Philippe, Jean Castex and Jean-Marc Ayrault, all renounced their mayoral duties upon assuming the role of prime minister.
While the French Constitution does not prohibit a prime minister from holding a mayoral position, Bayrou’s choice to do so amid a national crisis has reignited debate about whether dual roles compromised the effectiveness of national leadership.
The controversy came as Mayotte, a French archipelago off the east coast of Africa, has been dealing with the aftermath of Cyclone Chido.
Over the weekend of December 14, the storm brought winds exceeding 200kph, causing widespread devastation.
France’s national weather forecast organisation Meteo France reported that Chido was the strongest cyclone to strike Mayotte in almost a century. Local authorities have expressed fears of many casualties.
“I believe there will certainly be hundreds, perhaps even a thousand or more deaths,” stated Mayotte’s prefect, François-Xavier Bieuville, during an interview with local media outlet Mayotte La 1ère on December 15.
