Gabriel Attal denounced Wednesday the protests in Guadeloupe for more than a week. For the government spokesperson, these are only carried out by a “recalcitrant” and “violent” minority who take “an entire island hostage”. “Public health cannot be instrumentalised for political ends”, he insisted after the Council of Ministers, while the protests, originally against the obligation to vaccinate caregivers, degenerated into social crisis.
Gabriel Attal estimated that the government had “created the conditions for dialogue with the announcements of the Prime Minister on Monday evening”. To calm the situation on the West Indian island, Jean Castex had notably announced the creation of a “forum for dialogue” in order to “convince and support individually, humanly”, the professionals concerned by the vaccination obligation.
The extended curfew
Gabriel Attal recalled that the government had also decided on Saturday to send “additional security means” – about fifty agents of the GIGN and the Raid – to deal with the blockades and looting. He specified that President Emmanuel Macron had “intervened at the opening of the Council of Ministers” to “recall that our objective, our course, is to protect the Guadeloupeans, as we have been doing since the first day of this crisis”.
“We must continue to protect the Guadeloupeans, including against any form of delinquency that we can observe”, repeated Gabriel Attal. “We are going to continue this mobilization”, he insisted in front of the press, assuring that the Minister of Overseas Overseas Sébastien Lecornu would go to the island “as soon as the conditions are met”. On Tuesday, the prefect of Guadeloupe decided to extend the curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m., until Saturday, November 28, while the urban violence continued.