German, French far-right clash again – this time over Mayotte’s status

7 months ago 25

German far-right party AfD has again provoked France’s far-right party Rassemblement National (RN) by questioning the territorial status of the French overseas department of Mayotte in an official written request to the German government, with the party’s figurehead Marine Le Pen, clapping back that they should focus on Germany’s problems instead.

In an official written request, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) asked the German government on Thursday to “comment on the resolutions of the United Nations General Assembly according to which France must return the island group of Mayotte to the Union of the Comoros”.

However, this request did not sit well with RN figurehead Marine Le Pen, who, during a visit to the island on Saturday, said the AfD should “rather take care of Germany’s problems”.

The French far-right leader said she had no problem explaining to her German colleagues – who are in the same EU parliamentary group, Identity Democracy – “why the Mahoreans have already expressed their desire to be French three times.”

Following a referendum in 2009, Mayotte became an overseas department on 31 March 2011, with the same status as the French mainland departments. Since 2014, this small archipelago in the Indian Ocean has been a recognised outermost region of the European Union.

Geologically, Mayotte is part of the Comoros archipelago, an island nation between Madagascar and the African mainland. The Union of the Comoros, along with a UN General Assembly resolution, does not recognise Mayotte’s affiliation with France.

Previously, in referendums in 1974, when the Comoros declared its independence, and in 1976, its inhabitants voted to remain with France.

For the AfD, Le Pen’s outcry was a surprise, with spokesman Matthias Moosdorf telling AFP that “nobody here could have guessed that RN would be upset by this.”

Rather, it was about “German double standards” when it comes to “compliance with international law”, drawing a comparison with Germany’s refusal to recognise the results of Russian referendums in the annexed territories of Ukraine.

Le Pen called the comparison “extremely clumsy” and promised to teach her ID colleagues “a few lessons in geopolitics.”

Relations between the two leading far-right players in the European Parliament have been tense since the beginning of the year.

An investigative report on AfD members who backed the idea of ‘remigrating’ German citizens with a migrant background led Le Pen to publicly question their collaboration on the European stage.

(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)