Despite the strong reservations of the Macronists, the deputies gave a first green light on Wednesday to a socialist bill to recognize
the “responsibility”
of the State in the
“scandal”
of the chlordecone pesticide in the Antilles.
With strong symbolic significance, the text of the Guadeloupe deputy Elie Califer is expected in the hemicycle on February 29, during the day reserved for socialist proposals.
Elie Califer wants to include in the law that the
“French Republic recognizes its responsibility for the health, ecological and economic damage”
caused by the use of chlordecone in Martinique and Guadeloupe.
Its objective must be
“land clearance”
and
“compensation for victims”
.
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Chlordecone is a
“health bomb”
.
“The children who are the future of our country are contaminated for generations
,” said the MP.
In its wake, several elected officials denounced the ravages of this pesticide used in banana plantations and which, three decades after the end of its use in the French West Indies, continues to pollute the soil and water there.
The text was supported by a coalition of oppositions.
Without contesting the extent of the damage, the Renaissance group criticized a “standard”
bill
, simply
“symbolic”
:
“State responsibility cannot be decreed by law, it is established by court decision, but we are not judges
,” said Macronist MP Charlotte Parmentier-Lecocq.
A recognized “health scandal”
Renaissance then suggested rewriting the text by proposing recognition of
the Republic's
"share of responsibility"
in the extent of the damage
.
Then withdrew his amendment while awaiting the debate in the hemicycle.
Without opposing it, the MoDem found the proposed socialist law simply
“declaratory”
.
Chlordecone, a pesticide used in banana plantations to combat the weevil, was banned in the United States in 1975, but authorized in France from 1972 to 1990, and even until 1993 in the Antilles, where it benefited from an exemption. .
If they recognized a
“health scandal”
, investigating judges from the health center of the Paris judicial court pronounced a dismissal in early 2023 in the investigation into the poisoning of the West Indies with chlordecone, putting an end to a judicial investigation opened in 2008. Outraged, the civil parties announced an appeal.