Elisabeth Borne began Thursday her first overseas trip, to Reunion, where she will stay until Saturday to "understand" and "respond" to the "daily concerns" of the inhabitants, against the backdrop of announced opposition protests. The Prime Minister's plane landed at 07:23 local time in Saint-Denis-de-la-Réunion. The procession left the airport area under an imposing police apparatus, avoiding the few dozen demonstrators, some with pots and pans, who were waiting for its arrival.

After a wreath laying at the Saint-Denis War Memorial, the Prime Minister will visit a water tipping project (underground aqueduct) and inaugurate a house France Service in the town of Salazie, in the center of the island, before meeting in the afternoon with several elected officials and economic actors. Just before her departure on Wednesday evening, she celebrated in Paris the National Day of Remembrance of the Slave Trade, Slavery and their Abolitions, an issue that remains sensitive overseas.

Between ceremonies and official talks, sequences dedicated to ecology, housing, employment or agriculture, an intense program awaits the Prime Minister for this three-day visit to the Indian Ocean, which she is carrying out with four ministers Christophe Béchu (Ecological Transition), Marc Fesneau (Agriculture), Olivier Klein (Housing) and Jean-François Carenco (Overseas). "The common thread is really daily life, the concerns of the inhabitants of the island and how we respond to all these concerns," explains Matignon. "You must have noticed that I had a rather busy parliamentary agenda. This is the first time I can free up enough time" for an overseas visit, Borne said on the plane.

36% of inhabitants below the poverty line

A willingness to go in contact with the population in a context of persistent contestation of the pension reform and disrupted official travel. The task promises to be delicate for the head of government in Reunion where the unions and La France insoumise have launched calls to protest, pots and pans in hand, throughout the visit. No ban on demonstrations is envisaged at this stage. "The Prime Minister comes to meet the people of Reunion," insists rue de Varenne.



Without an absolute majority in the Assembly, weakened by the use of 49.3 on pensions, Elisabeth Borne faces a political equation of the most uncertain, endowed with a new government roadmap imposing and changing - the executive has once again changed its calendar on the immigration aspect - and a presidential review clause set for 14th July.

It is this roadmap, which extends beyond the "hundred days" decreed by the head of state, that Borne will expose in Reunion. Ahead of an interministerial committee on overseas France planned "in the coming weeks", according to Matignon. In this French department in the Indian Ocean, where according to INSEE, 36% of the inhabitants live below the poverty line and where pensions are the lowest in France, the pension reform has raised strong discontent. On 31 January, 10,000 people responded to the call to demonstrate launched by the local inter-union


  • Politics
  • Elisabeth Borne
  • Réunion
  • Pension reform 2023
  • Inflation
  • Marc Fesneau
  • Christophe Béchu