Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu is going to the West Indies on Sunday, November 28. This visit comes after more than a week of violence in Guadeloupe and Martinique. The protest started with opposition to compulsory vaccination against Covid-19, then spread to political and social demands.
On Friday, Sébastien Lecornu said that the government was “ready” to raise the issue of autonomy if this could make it possible to “solve the real problems of the daily life of Guadeloupe”. France Télévisions spoke with the minister on the plane that takes him to Guadeloupe.
France Télévisions: What are you doing in Guadeloupe? Why are you leaving now? What do you expect from this visit?
Sébastien Lecornu: As I said, a crisis negotiation cannot take place under pressure from anyone. Neither the pressure of Parisian political actors, nor obviously the pressure of roadblocks and illegal acts. This week, we have spent many hours increasing the contacts that have allowed us to frame the discussion we are going to have in Guadeloupe and Martinique.
There is an important demand coming from the territory and the various organizations which is not to apply the law on the vaccination obligation of caregivers and firefighters.
“The application of the law of the Republic is not the subject of negotiations. The law applies in all the French departments.”
Sébastien Lecornu, Minister of Overseas Territoriesat France Televisions
On the other hand, there are social consequences to the application of this law, including on public hospital services. And that, these are subjects on which I intend to discuss with all the representatives of the territory. The inter-union, I will obviously receive it, but also the local elected representatives.
Are you going to put all the subjects on the table, including the autonomy that some are asking for?
Sébastien Lecornu: Autonomy, I didn’t ask for it. It is a lot of actors – sometimes with a curious game of speech, it must be admitted – who tell us “let the Guadeloupeans decide for Guadeloupe and it’s up to us to decide whether the law should apply or not… “ This is not a French department.
“I like open debates, I don’t like pretenses and so I said to them: ‘Wait, if you really want that, you are asking us for a debate on autonomy!'”
Sebastien lecornuat France Televisions
Afterwards, some politicians in need of existence came to confuse independence and autonomy. But the moment we are living is also a moment of democracy. A law must apply. If we ask that it apply differently, as in French Polynesia, as in New Caledonia, it is because we are asking for another status for Guadeloupe. I want a frank exchange. It is not the government which proposes autonomy in any case, no double talk!
You tell elected officials that they must take their responsibility. So are we going to put all the subjects on the table?
Sébastien Lecornu: There are many themes that come from the field which, sometimes, do not concern the State, or even never concern the State.
“The question of drinking water, for example, is not a state competence. It is the competence of local authorities.”
Sebastien lecornuat France Televisions
I am not here to make the big night of all the demands in Guadeloupe, but there are very significant things that come from the streets and you have to know how to hear it. We do not have to be ashamed, because since 2017, concrete things have been done. It is also an opportunity to take stock of the situation and to reiterate who is responsible for what.