Tensions are not decreasing: a curfew was declared from this Wednesday evening, September 18 in certain districts of Fort-de-France and the neighboring commune of Lamentin, after another night of urban violence in a context of mobilization against the high cost of living in Martinique. The prefect of Martinique, Jean-Christophe Bouvier, announced “having signed a curfew order”, coming into force from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., in the districts most affected by the violence. This order will be effective at least until September 23, it is specified in a press release from the prefecture, and concerns “certain districts of the communes of Fort-de-France and Lamentin”.
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 alight. In the same neighborhood, a Carrefour hypermarket was “invaded by around fifty individuals who set up a barricade in the parking lot and tried to set it on fire,” the authorities told AFP. Fleeing on a scooter when the police dispersed the crowd, a man fell, sustaining minor injuries. He was arrested.
Food prices 40% higher than in mainland France
“I have asked the internal security forces to saturate the roads and roundabouts with their presence, and to make as many arrests as possible,” the prefect said at a press conference, 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.
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 beginning of the movement, “44 vehicles” have been set on fire and “35 private commercial premises attacked”, and the authorities have made “15 arrests”, detailed Jean-Christophe Bouvier. According to the prefect, “eleven police officers were injured by gunshots” and “three rioters” were also injured, one of them by gunshot.
“The cause is noble, but the method, what we are experiencing here, discredits the movement,” denounced Wednesday on franceinfo Rosette Jean-Louis, president of the citizens’ council of the working-class Sainte-Thérèse neighborhood, one of the most affected by the violence. This neighborhood “is not affected by the curfew. I did not want to penalize twice the citizens who live there, who already suffer the violence, who sometimes have to travel, for professional reasons, at night,” said the prefect on Wednesday. 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.
“We are French”
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 transit, is also targeted by the protest movement.
“We have been issuing injunctions since July, on July 1st to be precise, to large retailers asking them to align their prices with mainland France,” Rodrigue Petitot, leader of the Rally for the Protection of Afro-Caribbean Peoples and Resources (RPPRAC), told AFPTV. “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, nicknamed “the R” on the island. Invited on Thursday September 12 to a round table at the prefecture with all the players in large retailers 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.