Overseas elected officials sign “the Fort-de-France appeal” to ask the State to change its aid policy

Overseas elected officials write to Emmanuel Macron. In an open letter published on Tuesday May 17, the presidents of the regions of Guadeloupe, Réunion, Mayotte, Martinique, Saint-Martin and Guyana denounce “a situation of structural maldevelopment” and inequalities “more and more glaring” suffered by the populations of these territories.

In this letter, sent on the occasion of the opening of the Conference of European Outermost Regions (ORs), the elected representatives make a solemn appeal to the State to change its development aid policies for their affected territories. by poverty. His name: “Thecall from Fort-de-France” since it isfrom the capital of Martinique that it was imagined.

All are calling for a meeting with the president in order to change the situation in terms of cost of living, access to healthcare, education, employment or housing. According to INSEE, 27.4% of the population of Martinique lives for example below the poverty line, a rate twice as high as in metropolitan France.

In their document, the presidents of the ORs wish in particular to define a new framework for the application of public policies so that they are closer to the “specific realities of each region” and place the decision levers “closer to the territories”. They also insist on the need for “new economic policy” based on their “particularly geostrategic and ecological assets”.

“There is no question of the law on the coast being voted for example in the National Assembly and that this applies to us directly”, argued Ary Chalus, president of the regional council of Guadeloupe, on local radio RCI. And to recall that Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen (RN) came out on top in the first and second rounds of the presidential election. Which shows in his eyes “the discontent of our populations”.