“It wouldn’t be shocking if there was an ultramarine specificity” health measures, said Tuesday, November 23 on franceinfo Yves Jégo, in 2008-2009, at the time of a previous crisis in Guadeloupe. He recalls that he “there is often an overseas component” in the laws and that this could therefore be the case for the vaccination against Covid-19. In addition, he calls on the government to respond in depth to the reasons for the anger of Guadeloupe, whose health crisis was only the “detonator”.
>> Violence in Guadeloupe: the reasons for anger that is not only linked to the health crisis
franceinfo: Do you think that the health crisis is the only reason for the anger in Guadeloupe?
Yves Jégo: We are facing a crisis that is not cyclical. The cyclical part is the health crisis which was the detonator, but the underlying is social and economic. Basically, the demonstrators say we must listen to them. The ‘delegitimation’ of local elected officials is a reality and then there is a platform of demands. The health crisis is the exacerbated part but if we do not look at everything that is below, we miss the answer that is expected and I am afraid that we have a showdown that it will be difficult to get out. I believe that we should not have a too metropolitan reading of these subjects with a vision which only retains what is said. We must listen, hear, look at the unsaid and try to understand that this emerging crisis is a crisis much more economic and social than health.
Should we initiate negotiations first and restore order afterwards or vice versa?
We cannot engage in negotiations under the weight of street riots and the Guadeloupeans are also waiting for a return to calm. But behind, we must initiate a process of discussion which is essential. As always, we don’t see it coming. In 2009, the state services there had not seen it coming and I think it is the same today. There is a moment of crystallization, of multiple anger.
“As long as we remain on the economic cycle and do not put on the table a ‘new deal’, a new development model for the French Antilles based on production, on fiscal measures, as long as we remain on the social transfer, we will miss the answer. “
Yves Jégo, former Secretary of State for Overseas Territoriesto franceinfo
Beyond the order that must naturally be restored, beyond the discussions that must be initiated – and I imagine that the government has planned a strategy of discussion with the trade unions – it is also the reflection of the whole Nation on our vision of our islands, on the management of these territories and on the economic future of these territories which arises. If we put the lid back on the pot again, I bet you that in a few years the pot will pop again.
Should the health measures be different in metropolitan France and in Guadeloupe, in your opinion?
It is all the French fault of wanting to treat all parts of our territory in the same way. We have a kind of taste for the unification of standards which is terrible and which creates difficulties. I would not be shocked if there were special arrangements for the West Indies in terms of health pass, health organization. We must of course protect populations because we cannot admit – and we have seen it with emergency services overflowing with patients and unfortunately deaths – how dramatic the consequences can be. You have to adapt. Island situations are not the same as metropolitan situations and we have to get out of this idea which is to treat everyone in the same way whether they are in the heart of the metropolis or 6,000 kilometers away. There is an adaptation to be made and an intelligence to be created from the adaptation to take into account first what is said by the populations, the health professionals and then not to freeze.
I think that at one point the Republic is rich and knows how to adapt to very specific territories in relation to metropolitan France. I hear some say they do PCR tests every day. We must find measures to get out of this social knot and this knot of exasperation. We do this in many laws, it would not be shocking if there is an ultramarine specificity which means that the metropolitan health systems adapt to specificities and take into account local realities. In the laws, there is often an overseas aspect. I think that we should not be stiff as a picket on the health plan, we can have an adaptation and that must be part of an intelligent negotiation which must be carried out without delay.
Do you advise the government to deal first with the economic situation or the underlying dissatisfaction of Guadeloupe, such as employment, water, purchasing power?
You have to do both. I am not saying that we must stop being in the economic situation, we need an immediate response, we must respond by adapting to the expectations that are expressed in particular on health issues. But if, at the same time and walking on its own two feet, we do not open a more structuring dialogue on the future of these territories, on their economic model, on the prospects for 15 or 20 years of these territories, we will be able to calm things down by putting balm on hearts but we will not have solved the structural problem. This is what I had imagined doing in 2009. There has been a decade lost on this affair.
There are also local forces that do not necessarily want structural change. I think that we must engage in a fundamental dialogue and a deep dialogue on the future of these territories and not consider that, in a month or two, when we will no longer talk about them, that it will no longer be in the news. news, we can move on. This is what the Guadeloupeans also reproach a lot. They say that when they don’t protest, when there is no crisis, we no longer talk about them and there is no longer a strategic vision. It is a huge project but it is an essential project if we want to continue to shine and make France shine through islands and territories which are extremely precious for us and which are, in globalization, a considerable force for our country.