tense exchanges and indifference of the population during Emmanuel Macron’s visit

Nearly 10,000 km from Paris, the Head of State is confronted at every step with the challenge of the unity of the Nation, which is his mantra. He went to the heart of the Amazon forest, in Camopi, on Monday.

In the middle of the jungle, Camopi is a village cut off from the world that Emmanuel Macron reaches by helicopter. A few minutes in the dugout and the president is greeted by men dressed in loincloths. “Were you all born in Camopi?”Emmanuel Macron asks them. “Yes, if we came in traditional dress, it’s not to look pretty… We care a lot about our clothes” a man replies.

But faced with the ravages of illegal gold panning, and the appetite of Brazil located just opposite, these traditions and these rites also belong to France and the Republic, recalls the Head of State: “We know here that there are women and men who live in the French Republic and also live there with their traditions. Then, part of the extremely important sovereign missions takes place here: that of the protection of our territory. people who, coming from abroad, come to plunder resources and endanger the lives of our nationals.”

“I think it is very important to reiterate to the confines of the Republic that there are no double standards. We defend them here, like everywhere else.”

Emmanuel Macron

in Guyana, March 25, 2024

However, a few hours earlier, Place des Palmistes, in the heart of Cayenne, seemed almost indifferent to the presidential visit. When a resident calls out to Emmanuel Macron: “We are not French, that’s all. But I ask you, what have you come to do in Guyana? To bullshit us with bullshit.” Strong and unusual exchanges, there is no crowd bath here. As if the little sentence from 2017 when the head of state declared not to be “Santa” had triggered this indifference among the Guyanese.

Seven years later, no strike or social movement, but expected answers on autonomy after the Corsican example. “For me, the debate should not be ideological, must be very pragmatic and that’s how I did it in Corsicaexplains Emmanuel Macron. It’s a very different situation. Here, you have a real singularity, if I may say regional, and you already have another institutional framework. So there is an article that already allows you to adapt a lot of things. Are we doing it fully? Are we using it correctly? Should other adaptations be created? In any case, I am open if it is at the service of a territorial project in the Republic“, he replies.

In Kourou on Tuesday March 26, Emmanuel Macron comes full circle on the assembly site of the Ariane 6 rocket. Industry, sovereignty, influence… His other message to this part of France that the Head of State wants to keep tied to the Republic.