Guadeloupe is on Matignon’s agenda. The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, chairs a meeting with elected Guadeloupeans, Monday, November 22, in the evening, alongside the ministers of Overseas, Health and the Interior. The executive intends to collect “analysis” local elected officials on the situation in the department, shaken for more than a week by a movement contesting the health pass and the vaccination obligation for caregivers and firefighters.
>> DIRECT. Crisis in Guadeloupe: the Minister of Overseas France condemns the violence which “has nothing to do with health claims”
In the archipelago, where the general strike has turned into violence and looting and where a curfew has been re-established, the powerful General Union of Workers of Guadeloupe (UGTG) claims that the vaccination obligation was only “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. Here are the various difficulties exposed in recent days to analyze the cause of local urban violence.
A vaccination obligation deemed unsuitable
In Guadeloupe, the vaccination obligation for professionals in the health, social and medico-social sectors, in force since this fall, is widely criticized, including within the presidential majority. “We cannot apply it as is”, defended the LREM deputy Olivier Serva, Friday on franceinfo. For him, the vaccination rate in the department is too “insufficient” to allow application of the national rule: only 43% of the eligible population in Guadeloupe had received at least a first dose on November 16, according to the prefecture, against 89% nationally.
“We are not going to stupidly and badly apply a situation that does not work in Guadeloupe. We must take into account the specificities.”
Olivier Serva, LREM deputy from Guadeloupeto franceinfo
Among Guadeloupe professionals concerned by the obligation, vaccination levels are higher than in the rest of the local population. At the Pointe-à-Pitre University Hospital, the rate of vaccinated staff reached 88% last week. Sufficient to disrupt the activity of the establishment: “We had to find degraded modes to prepare meals, ensure that the laundry is still functioning and then review a little capacity at the medical level and at the surgical level”, described its deputy general manager, Cédric Zolezzi, last Wednesday on franceinfo. To allow the return of suspended staff, several elected officials are calling for the possibility of regular Covid tests.
A long-standing mistrust of the state
Behind the questioning of the vaccine obligation hides the questioning of the official discourse, especially if it comes from Paris. “Why? You know, we French people from Guadeloupe have experienced the chlordecone scandal, recalls the deputy Olivier Serva. It was the state which, twenty years ago, told us that this insecticide would pose no problem. Finally, this molecule poisoned our land, our mothers, gave cancer to our men and women, created malformations and this for 600 years. VS‘is an experience which leads to a distrust of the word of the State. “
In the case of chlordecone, as in that of Sargassum, toxic algae that invade the coast of the Antilles, “we don’t see the state moving”, deplores the president of the region, Ary Chalus, on franceinfo. Therefore, “people don’t trust anymore”, he emphasizes. For him, Guadeloupeans feel “left behind” by the state.
“If we had three or four million people, we would be treated in another way.”
Ary Chalus, President of the Guadeloupe regionto franceinfo
“The nation is in solidarity” with Guadeloupe, assured Emmanuel Macron, Monday, citing “the supports, the means, the materials, the beds” deployed “when it was necessary” on the Caribbean island facing the Covid-19 pandemic. The Head of State acknowledged that the “explosive situation” in the department was linked “to tensions that we know and which are historical”, while also deploring “certain interests [syndicaux] looking a little bit to use this context and anxiety “.
A social crisis aggravated by the health crisis
By calling for the continuation of the protest movement on Saturday, the UGTG maintained that this mobilization reflected “the depth of suffering, inequalities, poverty and exclusion suffered by the population”. An observation that does not refute the president of the region: “We are more than forty years behind compared to the Hexagon concerning our economic development”, he sums up, adding that Guadeloupe “lost a lot” of income due to the pandemic.
“This sporadic crisis could be the trigger for a much deeper social crisis”, warns economist Olivier Sudrie, overseas specialist and lecturer at Paris-Saclay University. For him, one of the ferments of this revolt is “the increase in inequalities linked to the health crisis”. In a territory where the informal economy is very important, the actors of this sector “have not been under the tap of social assistance: mechanically, inequalities have increased”.
Therefore, the security response to the anger in Guadeloupe is not enough, according to Socialist Senator Victorin Lurel. “The State gave us 10 million euros on a recovery plan, while we need 800 million euros, he believes. There is a kind of indifference on the part of the state, which does not understand. “ Words that echo those of a protester met near Le Gosier: “In this district, there has been no electricity or public lighting for six months. For years, there have been water cuts for sometimes a week. (…) And opposite, the ‘State does not exist. We are on our own. “