Be careful, minefield. In an attempt to calm tensions in Guadeloupe, the government said “ready”, Friday, November 26, to talk about the autonomy of this department, shaken like Martinique by a social explosion born of a movement against the vaccination obligation for caregivers. A proposal that instantly provoked controversy in France, the right-wing opposition denouncing Saturday a decline or a release of the executive. Franceinfo sums up the situation.
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What has the government announced?
In a televised address of more than a quarter of an hour to Guadeloupe, the Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, announced the creation of “1,000 jobs helped for young people” in Guadeloupe, a department where 34.5% of the population lives below the national poverty line, with a high unemployment rate (19%), especially among young people (35% in 2020 against a national average of 20%).
It was at the end of his speech that the minister said that the government was “ready” to raise the issue of increased autonomy for the archipelago. In the meetings of these last days, “some elected officials asked the question in hollow of autonomy “, explained the minister. “According to them, Guadeloupe could better manage itself. They want less equality with France, more freedom of decision by local decision-makers. The government is ready to talk about it, it does not. There are no bad debates, as long as these debates are used to resolve the real problems of everyday life for Guadeloupeans. “
What is the context of this declaration?
This change of position on the part of the executive comes at a time when the French department is the scene of a violent protest movement. Part of the population strongly opposes the compulsory vaccination of caregivers, which the government urgently postponed to December 31 in the West Indies, as well as the establishment of the health pass against Covid-19. But the anger quickly spread to other themes, such as the feeling of downgrading linked to a difficult economic situation, or a lack of recognition by Paris of local specificities.
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Despite the establishment of a curfew, several police officers were again the target of live ammunition and lead fire without being injured during the night from Friday to Saturday in Martinique and Guadeloupe, where many roadblocks were been installed. Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Friday there had been some “150 arrests since the start of this situation in Guadeloupe and Martinique”.
What could this “autonomy” look like in Guadeloupe?
Sébastien Lecornu was careful not to mention the question of the autonomy of Martinique, which has been a single local authority since January 1, 2016. Guadeloupe, on the other hand, is both a department and an overseas region. , two statuses which overlap, which can complicate relations with Paris.
Questioned by France Télévisions, the entourage of the minister evokes for Guadeloupe the model of French Polynesia. This French community in the southern Pacific Ocean has a large degree of autonomy, in accordance with article 74 of the Constitution. The local government is supervised there by a Territorial Assembly. Its institutions are competent in all matters (particularly health management, social protection or economic development), except those expressly attributed to the State. Polynesia can also define its own rules in most areas, including those which, in France, are the responsibility of the legislator, subject to compliance with the general principles of law and the Constitution.
The State, represented by a High Commissioner of the Republic based in Papeete, the capital, retains certain sovereign missions, such as defense, security, justice, and currency.
“You have to ask the question and ask it with caution”, analyzed at the microphone of franceinfo Victorin Lurel, PS senator from Guadeloupe. “There are two forms of autonomy: either general autonomy a bit like in Polynesia, or simply the governance of the health system as some demand”, explained the former Minister of Overseas François Hollande between 2012 and 2014. “It is clear that the question of health democracy arises, but if we really want to achieve autonomy, we must change the Constitution.”
Is this debate on autonomy new?
If the subject of independence is hardly ever mentioned in the public debate in Guadeloupe, the question of a change in governance is more significant. At the end of 2019, Guadeloupe’s elected officials meeting in congress had unanimously requested a revision of the Constitution. “in order to provide Guadeloupe with an organic law to take into account its specific situation and singular “, reported at the time The 1st.
The last consultation of the inhabitants on the subject of the organization of Guadeloupe institutions dates back to 2003. The merger of the department and the region into a single community had at the time been rejected by 72.98% of the voters.
What are the reactions?
Sébastien Lecornu’s statement was immediately shelled by right-wing and far-right opposition. The candidate for the nomination of the Republicans for the presidential one Xavier Bertrand has castigated this proposal of “less state”. Which is “at stake is the unity of the nation”, warned his competitor LR Michel Barnier, while for Eric Ciotti, also in the race for the nomination of the party of the right, “with Macron, the Republic gives in and retreats in the face of violence”.
What is at stake is the unity of the Nation. What is expected from the Gvt in the Antilles is authority, dialogue and health and economic support. No panic, no improvisation. It is not allowed to sow doubt on our attachment to overseas France.
– Michel Barnier (@MichelBarnier) November 27, 2021
RN candidate Marine Le Pen accused the government of being “ready to let go of Guadeloupe” for “trying to buy the radical separatists”.
Others believe that the minister is on the wrong ground in advancing an institutional response to a deeply social crisis. That “creates confusion” and “do not solve the problems” social, thus estimated Yves Jégo (Agir), former Secretary of State for Overseas Territories, on LCI on Saturday, urging instead to “an economic new deal” in the West Indies. Sebastien lecornu “try to find a joker to try not to face reality”, for his part judged on franceinfo Sandra Regol, deputy national secretary of Europe Ecology-The Greens.