Martinique holds its breath. As the minister responsible for the overseas territories, François-Noël Buffet, makes a long-awaited trip to this Antilles island, plagued by tensions over the high cost of living for two months, rioters have set up burning barricades and caused fires. majestic latan trees in several areas of Fort-de-France, on Tuesday, November 12, at dusk. Widely spread on social networks, these images recall the urban violence that broke out in September and October, and many Martinicans fear a step towards a new period of unrest, after two weeks of calm.
This new outbreak of fever is indirectly related to the arrival on Monday of Buffet for a four-day visit, one of whose main objectives was to clarify the application of a “protocol of objectives and means” to combat the high cost of living, signed on October 16 by the prefect and by around thirty elected officials and actors in the economic world, including the heads of local distribution groups.
However, this 28-point plan was rejected by the association behind the mobilization against the high cost of living, the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), which considers this agreement to be too unambitious, while food products are on average 40% more expensive in Martinique than in mainland France, according to INSEE. On Monday afternoon, the leaders of this group broke into the perimeter of the prefect’s private residence and demanded to meet with the minister. After a tense face-to-face meeting at the front door, the state representative refused to grant the activists’ request.
Tax agreements
This episode led to the arrest, the following night, of the president of the RPPRAC, Rodrigue Petitot. “He was arrested and taken into custody for trespassing and acts of intimidation.”said to World Clarisse Taron, prosecutor of Fort-de-France. The arrest, not far from his home in Fort-de-France, of this charismatic forty-year-old was filmed by numerous witnesses. These images were enough to reignite the gunpowder in the popular Sainte-Thérèse neighborhood, the epicenter of the previous riots, but also in the city center, near the police station.
The atmosphere was much more cordial on Tuesday morning in the prefecture of Martinique. The minister spoke at length with the prefect and the thirty signatories of the protocol of October 16 about the application of this plan to combat the high cost of living. At the end of the meeting you could see the satisfaction on their faces. “The goal is, at 1Ahem next January, – 20% on 6,000 products »Buffet reaffirmed during a press conference after this meeting. About these articles “diverse nature”stakeholder commitments will allow “reduce the gap by almost 50% [de prix] between France and the territory of Martinique »welcomed the minister. “We will see it on the labels. »
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