An agreement, but a crisis which continues: the State announced Wednesday evening that it had signed an agreement, in particular with distributors, to reduce food prices by “20% on average” in Martinique, the scene since September of a mobilization against the high cost of living.
This agreement, reached on Wednesday evening in Fort-de-France at the end of a seventh round of negotiations and announced by the prefect of Martinique, was however not signed by the collective Rally for the Protection of African Peoples and Resources. Caribbean (RPPRAC), at the origin of the mobilization since September 1, which slammed the door and called to “continue the movement”.
“The accumulation of collective efforts provided for in the protocol will allow hypermarkets to make a reduction of 20% on average in the sales prices currently practiced on a list of 54 product families corresponding to the most consumed food products in Martinique,” writes the prefect in a press release.
The “protocol of objectives and means to combat the high cost of living”, in this territory where food prices are currently 40% higher than in France, was signed between the local prefecture, the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique and a battery of local players, ranging from distributors (hypermarkets and supermarkets in particular) to parliamentarians, including the Grand Port maritime and the transporter CMA-CGM.
– “The work will continue” –
Traveling to New Caledonia, the Minister of Overseas Territories, François-Noël Buffet, welcomed “very, very strong progress against the high cost of living in Martinique, with a significant budgetary commitment”.
“The work will continue, because we will in any case have structural reforms to make to lower the cost of living in our overseas territories,” he added, assuring that he would come to Martinique in due time but “ doesn’t like being put under pressure.
He was reacting to a request from the RPPRAC, which made the lifting of the blockades in Martinique conditional on the minister’s arrival.
According to the prefect, “the lasting drop in food prices will result” in particular from several measures to reduce the costs of purchasing and transporting 6,000 food products as well as a “firm and obligatory commitment from large distributors to reduce significantly their margins.
“There is an urgency to sign for the Martinique economy,” he declared on the sidelines of the seventh round table on Wednesday, also calling for the “de-escalation of violence”, while the authorities extended Monday until October 21 a nighttime curfew on the island.
Since the beginning of September, Martinique has been in the grip of social mobilization which degenerates at regular intervals into urban violence. In recent weeks, the island has experienced looting, fires, road blockages as well as the invasion of the airport of the capital Fort-de-France.
“The people in total disagreement (with the protocol) have decided to continue the movement,” reacted immediately after the announcement the RPPRAC.
“We are asking that the minister (for Overseas Territories) travel to Martinique. As long as the minister does not travel, no one will be able to travel” on the island, where filter dams manned by the government have been multiplying for more than a month. activists, declared to his supporters at the end of the negotiations the leader of the movement, Rodrigue Petitot.
– “All food” –
If his collective did not sign the agreement, it is because he wanted the price reduction to concern “all food products” and not just around fifty product families.
“We are talking about 6,000 products out of 40,000 (…) Everyone agrees except the RPPRAC”, launched “the R” to its activists gathered under the building of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique.
“We are ultra-determined. We maintain the blockages, we maintain everything. The fight is until we win our case,” he insisted.
While in recent days a clear calm had settled on the island, Rodrigue Petitot warned: “We are going to do everything we have to do so that this problem (of the cost of living) can be resolved.”
“I hope that there will be no excesses and slippages, because Martinique companies, particularly small ones, have paid a heavy price,” expressed concern after the signing Marcellin Nadeau, MP from the north of the island, around the table on Wednesday.
“To the extent that the RPPRAC has not signed,” he told AFP, “we cannot say that we are out of the crisis.”
