Martinique holds its breath. Even as the minister responsible for overseas territories, François-Noël Buffet, makes a long-awaited trip to this island in the Antilles, plagued by tensions due to the high cost of living for two months, rioters have erected flaming barricades and set fires. majestic latan trees in several areas of Fort-de-France, Tuesday, November 12, at nightfall. Widely distributed on social networks, these images recall the urban violence which broke out in September and October, and many Martinicans fear a shift towards a new period of riots, after two weeks of calm.
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This new outbreak of fever is indirectly linked to the arrival on Monday of Mr. Buffet for a four-day visit, one of the main objectives of which was to clarify the implementation of a “protocol of objectives and of means” to fight against the high cost of living, signed on October 16 by the prefect and by around thirty elected officials and actors from the economic world, including the bosses of local distribution groups.
This 28-point plan was nevertheless 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 too little ambitious, while food products are on average 40% more expensive in Martinique than in mainland France, according to INSEE. Monday evening, the leaders of this collective burst into the perimeter of the prefect's private residence and demanded to meet the minister. After a tense face-to-face meeting at the front door, the state representative refused to grant the activists' request.
Tax arrangements
This episode motivated the arrest, the following evening, of the president of the RPPRAC, Rodrigue Petitot. “He was arrested and taken into custody for home invasion and acts of intimidation”said to Monde Clarisse Taron, the public 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 once again ignite the powder in the popular district of Sainte-Thérèse, the epicenter of the previous riots, but also in the city center, near the police station.
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The atmosphere was much more cordial on Tuesday morning at the Martinique prefecture. The minister spoke at length, with the prefect and the thirty signatories of the protocol of October 16, on the implementation of this plan to combat the high cost of living. At the end of the meeting, satisfaction could be seen on their faces. “The objective is, at 1is next January, – 20% on 6,000 products »reaffirmed Mr. Buffet during a press conference following this meeting. On these articles of « nature diverse »stakeholder commitments will make it possible to “reduce the gap by almost 50% [de prix] between France and Martinique territory »welcomed the minister. “We will see it on the labels. »
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