Determined.
After breaking into the hemicycle of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe late Thursday morning, anti-health pass protesters decided to spend the night there.
Their protest action could continue until an exchange is obtained with the representatives of the State.
Qualified by elected officials as an act of "unprecedented violence", it illustrates a dispute that has lasted for several weeks on the island.
According to the region, "more than a hundred people" entered the chamber Thursday late morning but in total, "more than 400 people" who invaded the premises.
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 negotiations intended to put a end to this crisis.
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"It has become the people's house," Gaby Clavier, a trade unionist from the health branch of the UGTG, told the local press after a meeting with the president of the region Ary Chalus.
"The president is committed to getting us a meeting with parliamentarians on Tuesday (
Editor's note
, December 28)," said Jocelyn Zou, FO trade unionist and firefighter mobilized against the vaccine obligation.
The demonstrators, who intend to stay "to sleep in the regional hotel", must decide this Friday of the follow-up to be given to 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.
“Unworthy intimidation and violence”
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", denounced the regional executive earlier, criticizing in a press release "practices unworthy intimidation and violence ”.
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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. “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. "No claim justifies hindering the smooth running of an assembly of elected officials in the middle of a plenary session," tweeted Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
No claim justifies hindering the smooth running of an assembly of elected officials in the middle of a plenary session.
The @ Prefet971 is in contact with the president of the region @ achalus971 to take the necessary measures against the eruption of demonstrators in the @CRGuadeloupe.
- Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) December 23, 2021
But the demonstrators do not intend to move one iota until they have been listened to.
"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," says Jean-Marie Nomertin, leader of the CGTG union, present in the 'hemicycle.
Caregivers refractory to the vaccine "suspended" on December 31
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 ”.
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 by opponents of the vaccination obligation and the health pass Thursday, but in lesser proportions.
Protesters blocked access to the community hotel with pallets, branches and bins.
A delegation was finally received by elected officials and the demonstrators left the scene at the end of the morning.
