Louis Mermaz, former Minister of Agriculture, was interviewed in July 2021 in the part of the investigation into chlordecone poisoning in the French West Indies.
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The former Minister of Agriculture Louis Mermaz was heard on July 22, 2021 at the request of the investigating judges of the health center of the Paris court, learned Tuesday February 1 franceinfo from a source close to the file. He was heard as part of the investigation into chlordecone poisoning in the French West Indies.
In the spring of 1992, Louis Mermaz had signed a waiver as minister authorizing the continued use of chlordecone in Guadeloupe and Martinique, despite its legal ban in February 1990. He was then Minister of Agriculture in the government of Edith Cresson, then Pierre Bérégovoy, under the presidency of François Mitterrand.
According to the lawyers at the origin of the first complaint lodged in February 2006, if Louis Mermaz recognized the scandalous nature of this poisoning of the soils and the men in the West Indies, he on the other hand declined his direct responsibility in the granting of these derogations for banana growers and distributors. “He claims to have never heard of chlordecone”, laments on franceinfo Harry Durimel, one of these lawyers and current mayor of Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe.
“Louis Mermaz claims not even to remember his closest collaborators who nevertheless signed in his name many administrative acts which bind the French nation, explains Harry Durimel. Sometimes these were simple letters of convenience addressed to the kings of the banana and some local elected officials.”
Harry Durimel, Mayor of Pointe-a-Pitreat franceinfo
The use of chlordecone has caused significant and long-lasting soil pollution in Guadeloupe and Martinique. Complaints have been filed for endangering the lives of others and poisoning. Despite the revelation of this last hearing, the prospect of a dismissal seems to be looming in this health file, mainly because of prescription, as explained by the former public prosecutor of Paris Rémy Heitz, in an interview. at France West Indies in 2021, which the civil parties dispute.