evidence: This time, there were no traditional flower necklaces to welcome the visitors. No shengué welcome song. And no mingling with the crowd while delivering messages of praise, as was the case last June on his last visit to France's overseas territory of Mayotte, in the Indian Ocean. At the time, just after the launch of Operation Wuambushu to combat crime, illegal immigration and substandard housing, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin had been described by the crowd as "the man for the job." [...] To quell this long-simmering anger on an island of 310,000 inhabitants where, according to the national statistics institute, in 2017 almost half of the population was foreign, Darmanin solemnly launched his series of promises as soon as he got off the plane: "The president of the Republic has instructed me to tell the Mahorais that we are going to take a radical decision, which is to include the end of birthright citizenship in Mayotte in a constitutional amendment." "It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not the child of a French parent," the minister explained. "We will cut off the archipelago's attractivity [to immigrants]." The measure had been called for years by most of Mayotte's elected representatives and its population. It will add to the specific features and exceptions of the law governing foreigners in Mayotte. There, birthright citizenship already includes numerous exceptions aimed at discouraging illegal immigration.