Guadeloupe: anti-pass demonstrators occupy the Regional Council for the night

Published on : 12/24/2021 – 09:25

Demonstrators who burst Thursday, December 23, at the end of the morning in the hemicycle of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe, decided to spend the night there to continue what was described by elected officials as an act of ” unprecedented violence “, which illustrates a dispute that has lasted for several weeks in the archipelago.

“It has become the people’s house,” Gaby Clavier, a trade unionist for the health branch of the UGTG, told the local press after a meeting with the president of the region Ary Chalus.

“The president promised to get us a meeting with parliamentarians on Tuesday,” Jocelyn Zou, FO trade unionist and firefighter mobilized against the vaccine obligation, told AFP.

>> To read: Crisis in the West Indies: the government ready to make concessions on the vaccine obligation

The demonstrators, who intend to stay “to sleep in the regional hotel”, must decide on Friday what to do with the movement. They ask the State to join the negotiating table, which has been interrupted for two weeks, to discuss the issues at the origin of the social crisis in Guadeloupe, with first and foremost the vaccination obligation.

This intrusion at the end of a plenary session of elected officials was condemned by the entire political class of Guadeloupe. “These facts (…) are part of a radicalization which uses terror” and are “an unacceptable attack on democracy”, estimated the elected officials of the Standing Committee of the department.

“Destroying the furniture of the Region, (…) ransacking the offices of agents, molesting journalists, insulting and threatening agents of the Guadeloupe Region is inexcusable!”, Had denounced earlier the regional executive, criticizing in a press release “unworthy practices of intimidation and violence”.

According to the region, “more than a hundred people” entered the chamber at the end of the morning, but in total “more than 400 people” invaded the premises.

A petition against violence committed at the CHU

In Guadeloupe, where a first case of the Omicron variant was detected on Saturday and where the fourth wave of Covid-19 killed more than 800 people, resistance to vaccination is strong.

The archipelago was affected in November by a protest movement, sometimes violent, born of the opposition to the obligation for nursing staff and firefighters to be vaccinated against Covid-19. The conflict turned into a social crisis.

Several representatives of civil society (academics, philosophers, trade unionists, etc.) launched a petition a few days ago against violence committed at the CHU de Guadeloupe and denounced Thursday’s action.

>> To see: Behind the blockages in Guadeloupe and Martinique, the anger against the high cost of living

“There are common spaces that deserve to escape the fury and violence. This is the case for hospitals and for democratic debate,” they wrote in a statement.

By entering the Regional Council, the demonstrators – a group of organizations, particularly trade unions and citizens, very demanding – intend to put pressure on elected officials so that they ask for the participation of the State in the negotiations intended to put a end to this crisis.

“No claim justifies hampering the smooth running of an assembly of elected officials in the middle of a plenary session,” tweeted Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

Health personnel “suspended” on December 31

“We want elected officials to vote a motion to bring the state to the negotiating table” because it has “the financial levers for many negotiating points”, explained Jean-Marie Nomertin, leader of the CGTG union, present in the hemicycle.

The negotiations came to an end two weeks ago after the signing of an “method agreement” by local elected officials and the collective but not by the State, absent from the process.

The French Overseas Ministry announced three days ago that the health personnel of the Antilles refractory to the vaccination obligation would be “suspended” on December 31 and could “orient themselves towards a new profession” via a “cell of support and professional retraining “.

>> To see: Antilles: Martinique and Guadeloupe are sinking into the crisis

Demonstrations took place over the weekend. Access to the largest shopping center on the island was blocked for several hours on Saturday, and a fire then broke out in the hypermarket.

In Martinique, the hotel of the local authority in Cluny (Fort-de-France) was also the target of an action on Thursday by opponents of the vaccination obligation and the health pass, but in smaller proportions.

Protesters blocked access to the community hotel with pallets, branches and trash cans, AFP noted. A delegation was finally received by elected officials and the demonstrators left the scene at the end of the morning.

With AFP