While Emmanuel Macron listened attentively, in Paris, to the presidents of the overseas regions who signed last May the “Fort-de-France appeal” in favor of greater autonomy, the president of the departmental council Cyrille Melchior made a political coup in Reunion by broadcasting the results of a survey commissioned by his community on the subject of the institutional status of Reunion. The investigation, carried out by the Sagis company with a sample of 500 people, confirmed the attachment of the Reunion Islanders to the departmental status and their hostility to any institutional development. 89% of them want to continue to benefit from the status of overseas department, only 4% of respondents believe that departmentalization has been “a bad thing”, 76% say they are “departmentalists” compared to 22% “autonomists”, and 76% believe that it “is better to have the same laws as in France”. A majority (57 %) is opposed to the prospect of a single assembly, while 36% of those questioned would welcome the merger of the regional council and the departmental council. The Reunionese are, on the other hand, shared about a possible municipal redistribution : 47% of them believe that a division of the largest municipalities would be a good thing, 48% bad.
Reunion residents more than ever attached to departmental status
