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The cost of living is at the heart of the trip of the Minister of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu, to the West Indies. It is Tuesday, November 30 in Martinique, where the discomfort crystallizes around purchasing power.
On all the dams and gatherings in Fort de France (Martinique), the refrain is the same: the dear life. It is now part of the demands of the demonstrators, as well as the vaccination obligation, yet at the origin of the movement. “We can do more. The retirees can no longer eat”, annoys a demonstrator. According to INSEE, food prices are 38.2% higher in Martinique than in mainland France, even if the prices vary from one product to another.
It takes 1.69 euros for a package of pasta, 20% more than in the same brand in metropolitan France. For a jar of fresh cream, you have to spend more than double in Martinique. What feed a feeling of incomprehension and injustice. “Not everyone can afford a cart a week, that’s not possible,” says a resident of the island. “There is a lot of misery, a lot of people suffering.” Faced with the high cost of living, the president of the Chamber of Trades and Crafts of Martinique, Henri Salomon, expresses his desire “to enrich all Martinicans”. Even though he recognizes that “in an island economy”, life will be “always more expensive than elsewhere”.