Since Wednesday, residents of certain neighborhoods in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and the neighboring town of Lamentin, have had to respect a curfew from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. But why? Carrefour and McDonald’s fires, police stations targeted, protests against the high cost of living… 20 Minutes provides an update on recent events affecting the island.
Revolts against the high cost of living
For several nights, urban violence has been shaking certain neighborhoods of Fort-de-France, the capital of this island in the French Antilles with a population of around 350,000. On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, a McDonald’s in the Dillon neighborhood was set on fire, leaving its employees technically unemployed, and barricades were set ablaze.
In the same neighborhood, a Carrefour hypermarket was “invaded by about fifty individuals who set up a barricade in the parking lot and tried to set it on fire,” the authorities said. Fleeing on a scooter at the time of the dispersal by the police, a man fell, slightly injuring himself. He was arrested.
These tensions are part of a protest movement against the high cost of living that began in early September. In Martinique, according to an INSEE study in 2022, food prices were 40% higher than in mainland France.
Since the start of the movement, “44 vehicles” have been set on fire and “35 private commercial premises attacked”, and the authorities have made “15 arrests”, indicated the prefect of Martinique Jean-Christophe Bouvier during a press conference on Wednesday.
Police targeted
Violence had already broken out in Sainte-Thérèse on the night of September 2 to 3, during which police officers were targeted with live ammunition. Indeed, on the night of Friday to Saturday, two people opened fire on the facade of the Fort-de-France police station, without causing any injuries. “This strategy of chaos cannot lead to any positive outcome,” warned the prefecture.
The Grand Port Maritime de Martinique, through which 98% of goods entering or leaving this overseas territory pass, is also targeted by the protest movement.
A curfew and reinforcements
Jean-Christophe Bouvier then announced on Wednesday that he had “signed a curfew order”, which will come into effect from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. in the neighborhoods most affected by the violence. This order will be in effect at least until September 23, it is specified in a press release from the prefecture, and concerns “certain neighborhoods in the municipalities of Fort-de-France and Lamentin”.
“I have asked the internal security forces to saturate the roads and roundabouts with their presence, and to make as many arrests as possible,” he said, adding that “significant” reinforcements had arrived and that others would arrive “in the coming days.” A squadron of gendarmes, or about a hundred soldiers, was sent as reinforcements.
According to the prefect, “eleven police officers were injured by gunshots” and “three rioters” were also injured, one of them by gunshot.
A method that “discredits the movement”
“The cause is noble, but the method, what we are experiencing here, discredits the movement,” denounced Rosette Jean-Louis, president of the citizens’ council of the working-class Sainte-Thérèse district, one of the most affected by the violence, on franceinfo on Wednesday.
At AFPTV, Rodrigue Petitot, leader of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), recalled that “since July 1 precisely” injunctions had been issued to large retailers. They are asking them “to align their prices with mainland France.”
“We are French, we have the same identity cards, the same fines, the same taxes if not more taxes, we do not understand why on the subject of food specifically we could not have the same prices”, criticized Rodrigue Petitot.
Our file on Martinique
Invited on Thursday, September 12, to a round table at the prefecture with all the players in the mass distribution sector and institutions, the representatives of the RPPRAC left the negotiations after five minutes when the prefect refused to broadcast the discussions live on social networks.
The State, distributors and local authorities are aiming for a “20% average reduction in the price” of 2,500 basic necessities. To combat the high cost of living, the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique has declared itself in favour of eliminating the rates of octroi de mer, the tax specific to overseas departments applying to imported goods, on several hundred products.
