From a full-fledged ministry to a delegated ministry: the Overseas Territories now depend on the Ministry of the Interior. The former prefect Jean-François Carenco became minister delegate to Gérald Darmanin after the appointment of the Borne 2 government. An announcement which risks being badly perceived by Ultramarines according to certain elected officials.
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The new Overseas Minister is a delegate minister. He will henceforth serve with the Ministry of the Interior. Gérald Darmanin therefore sees his missions extended since he becomes Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories. “My energy will also be at the service of our overseas territories which are the pride of the Republic!”said the minister this morning on social networks.
After the lightning passage of Yaël Braun-Pivet at the Ministry of Overseas and the two years of Sébastien Lecornu, sanctioned by a bad score of Emmanuel Macron Outre-mer in the presidential election, this change of status goes badly with certain elected officials and other political figures.
The PS Federation of Guadeloupe talks abouta “shocking punishment after electoral sanction”. According to its first secretary, it is “regression” and D’ “unacceptable relegation” even if he greets “the appointment to rue Oudinot of a high-ranking official with a very good knowledge of our territories.”
In the process, Victorin Lurel reacts in turn. For the former Minister of Overseas, “[la] nomination [de Jean-François Carenco] at the head of a ministry delegated to the Interior is a regression. (…) The message sent: first the Order, the rest we will advise.”
“It is a very particular signal that is sent to the Overseas Territories”, is also indignant the Polynesian deputy (GDR) Moetai Brotherson. He specifies : “We remember how Mr. Darmanin sent the troops to Guadeloupe. We also remember his declarations on New Caledonia: it is not necessarily a very enthusiastic message that is sent to the Overseas Territories on this day”.
On the side of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen expresses her dissatisfaction : “Surely to punish our overseas compatriots for having “voted badly”, they are today losing their ministry which is attached to that of the Interior! This decision is heavy with meaning and will obviously be very badly felt overseas.
Reunion MP (GDR) Karine Lebon stigmatizes “a historic step back for the Overseas Territories”. “What message are we sending to the Ultramarines? Please do not disturb?”, she wonders.
The fact that Jean-François Carenco is “attached to the Ministry of the Interior” does not bode well according to Moetai Brotherson: “one must believe that the Overseas are a public disturbance to the republican order”he is alarmed.
“We would have preferred a full-fledged ministry, as has been the case for a very long time”, adds the Polynesian deputy. Have “an unknown” in this position “even if he was prefect in Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and Guadeloupe” worries the member because “[il] knows neither Polynesia, nor New Caledonia, nor the other overseas territories”. You can rWatch his intervention on FranceInfo:
Moetai Brotherson reacts to the appointment of Jean-François Carenco overseas
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Moetai Brotherson is not the only elected official to worry about the expansion of the interior ministry. Is this a safe takeover of the Overseas Territories? It is in any case the fear of the deputy LFI Aurélie Trouvou. “It is a sign to put [les Outre-mer] in the Ministry of the Interior, says the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis, and “all this is no coincidence”.
The president of the LFI group in the National Assembly Mathilde Panot goes one better by evoking the brand of “cynicism and contempt for macronie”Gérald Darmanin being “the one who sent the RAID and the GIGN when Guadeloupeans demanded more social justice.”
“I am quite worried for the populations on the spot”declares the ecologist deputy-Nupes Sandrine Rousseau this Monday on franceinfo, about the extension of the ministerial portfolio of Gérald Darmanin to the Overseas.
For his part, the Guadeloupe deputy Olivier Serva (Liberties, Independents, Overseas and Territories) regrets that the Overseas Territories are under “the dependence of the Ministry of the Interior, and not of the Prime Minister” : “would this be a safe message for overseas [alors qu’ils ] need anything else? For example, a signal for discussion, exchange, taking into account the specificities (…) of taking into account (…) the need to reintegrate suspended unvaccinated caregivers, the question of the power of ‘purchase”.
In this flood of indignation, a -positive- reaction stands out, that of Nicolas Metzdorf, newly elected deputy and government supporter: “the association of the Overseas Territories and the Interior is excellent news for our territories”says the Caledonian. “It is the demonstration that Emmanuel Macron considers the Overseas territories in the same way as the metropolis”.
The integration of the Overseas Ministry into the Interior is not a first. Already in 1974, Olivier Stirn became “Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior and Decentralization, Overseas Departments and Territories”. In 2007, after the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as President of the Republic, Christian Estrosi was appointed “Secretary of State in charge of Overseas Territories”, to Michèle Alliot-Marie, “Minister of the Interior, ‘Overseas and local authorities’. Also under the Sarkozy presidency, Brice Hortefeux from June 2009 to February 2011, then Claude Guéant from February 2011 to May 2012 held the title of “Minister of the Interior, Overseas Territories and Local Authorities”.