The authorities of Martinique invited the intersyndical on Monday which launched the blockages to be discussed. In Guadeloupe Tensions remain live, despite the government’s proposals.
Le Monde with AFP
The situation is gotten in Martinique. In the evening of the third day of the general strike, Wednesday, November 24, the dams on the main roads of the island multiplied.
The authorities of Martinique invited the intersyndical which launched the blockages on the island to discuss and plans to harden the tone. “We received an invitation to a meeting Thursday morning at 10 am [15 hours in Paris] with the Prefect and the Chairman of the Executive Board [of the Territorial Community of Martinique, Serge Letchimy] to the Prefecture,” said Eric Bellemare, Secretary General of Force Ouvrière Martinique, Wednesday afternoon at a press point.
Violence on the island
The invitation was made while the members of the Intersyndical threatened “to take other provisions” against the “contempt posted by the prefecture”, according to the words of the union representative.
The leaders of the seventeen organizations that have appealed to mobilize in Martinique since Monday had to turn to their respective bases to decide on come. But the unions have warned that they did not count custody. “If so far the state has made small steps, it is thanks to the balance of power,” observed Gabriel Jean-Marie, Secretary General of the General Confederation of Labor of Martinique (CGTM). Dams could therefore persist.
Martinique préfecture had already reported “very violent events (…) in the agglomeration of Fort-de-France” on Tuesday night in Wednesday. “Seven policemen and five gendarmes were slightly injured but they were not hospitalized”, according to the same source.
“Five people have been arrested and are always in custody for homicide attempts and aggravated violence on persons custodians of the public authority, fire damage, port and possession of arms, participation in armed crowds . They have all been convicted, “she added.
No political solution to Guadeloupe
A Guadeloupe, the tension does not come down either. The prefecture, which extended the curfew to Saturday, announced that two gendarmes had “been slightly injured” and that six people had been arrested during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. The Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, assured that in Guadeloupe, “the criminal answer [was] in progress: practically a hundred arrests when I speak to you”.
Since Paris, the government spokesman, Gabriel Attal, has denounced a “recalcitrant minority” and “violent” that takes “an entire island hostage”. “Public health can not be instrumentalized for political purposes,” he insisted at the end of the Council of Ministers at which the President, Emmanuel Macron, “recalled that our goal, our CAP is to protect the Guadeloupéens “.
Many surveys were opened Wednesday to Guadeloupe on incidents on the sidelines of the gatherings, including the death of a young man, Monday night, near the Sapotille Dam.
To calm the situation, the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, had announced on Monday the creation of a “dialogue body” in order to “convince and to accompany individually, humanely”, the professionals concerned by the immunization obligation . The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, also “decided to set up a structure that will make it possible to find a solution to each of the 1,400 suspended people because they are not in accordance with this immunization obligation,” said Sébastien Lecornu.
The Minister of Overseas will bring together Thursday in videoconference “All the elected officials of Guadeloupe” to address the sanitary measures but also the question of youth “which is on the dams”. Solutions that have not convinced.