The president of the RPPRAC was arrested on Tuesday November 12 for entering the grounds of the residence of the island's prefect in order to meet the Minister of Overseas Territories. In the process, tensions erupted around the Fort-de-France police station and in several neighborhoods.
As is often the case in Martinique, it all started with a video, filmed on the phone on Tuesday November 12 in a district of Fort-de-France. We see Rodrigue Petitot, the leader of the RPPRAC, the organization at the origin of the movement against the high cost of living, red bob on his head and t-shirt of the same color on his back, being escorted by five police officers with hooded faces. . In another, we then see him being forcefully placed in the back of an unmarked car, all to the invectives of around ten people. The videos spread like wildfire, widely shared in WhatsApp loops and on social media. And with it, information, experienced as a shock on the island: the “R”, as everyone calls him in Martinique, was arrested.
In the afternoon, the Fort-de-France public prosecutor's office confirmed the arrest and placement in police custody of Rodrigue Petitot after a complaint for home invasion and acts of intimidation against people exercising public service. Concretely, he is accused of having entered the day before with several members of the RPPRAC into the prefectural residence in the upscale Didier district of Fort-de-France. An intrusion whose aim was to obtain an interview with the Minister of Overseas Territories, François-Noël Buffet, currently visiting Martinique.
On extracts from a TikTok live broadcast Monday evening, we first see Rodrigue Petitot chatting with the police who are blocking access to the residence, then finally apparently being authorized to pass through with a few people . On others, we see him discussing in a very vehement manner with the prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier. The conversation turns to cacophony, whoever shouts the loudest, and the members of the RPPRAC are finally escorted towards the exit.
The prefect Jean-Christophe Bouvier judged the attitude of the collective “unacceptable, unimaginable, intolerable”. Tuesday morning, on the sidelines of a point with the different parties having negotiated the agreement to lower the prices of part of the foodstuffs (the RPPRAC had left the negotiations along the way), François-Noël Buffet put it back a layer. “Last night’s situation and last night’s behavior put an end to the possibility” a meeting with the RPPRAC “at least temporarily”declared the minister to a handful of journalists. “I have no difficulty being the interlocutor of a certain number of people, although there is a condition for that, the first is that we respect each other. And that we do not commit offenses to force decisions and in the circumstances to force passage.”
Barrage and gathering
After the arrest of Rodrigue Petitot, the secretary of the RPPRAC, Aude Goussard, said fear to the microphone of the local radio RCI “a new night of disruption which will be the responsibility of the prefect and the minister”. In the evening, around a hundred people gathered in front of the Fort-de-France police station to call for his release. Several gendarmes, placed around the police station, came under fire from grenades, mortars and firearms. Three of them were injured in the clashes.
Other incidents took place during the night. A roadblock was erected in the Sainte-Thérèse district where Rodrigue Petitot says he lives. Several trees were also burned in the center of Fort-de-France. On WhatsApp, a list of places to block “tomorrow and in the days to come” circulates, and calls to “sustain” or to “to honor the R” multiply.
After two months of demonstrations and blockades targeting in particular the various major retail brands in Martinique, the RPPRAC flew to France around ten days ago to export the movement to Paris. After two demonstrations in the capital, on November 3 and 10, Rodrigue Petitot and other figures of the movement returned to Martinique on Monday to accompany the minister's visit. They still have two days left to meet François-Noël Buffet who is due to leave the island at the end of the day on Thursday.
To try to put out the fire, the minister also recalled on Tuesday that the agreement negotiated between large retailers and elected officials, which should allow a 20% reduction in the price of around 6,000 products in Martinique and Guadeloupe , will come into force from January 1, 2025.
