Police officers were targeted by shots in Guadeloupe, deplored the Minister of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu, on Tuesday, ensuring that this violence had to be decorrelated from the challenge of the vaccine obligation, to which the government is looking for solutions in consultation.
“There is no urban violence, as I speak to you, but unfortunately in recent hours, we have had shots against the police, especially in Pointe-à-Pitre,” said the minister on France 2.
No parallel with the 2009 strike
“We can see that we are not dealing with a health and social issue, we are on gangs, we are on thugs, we are on people who are unfortunately already unfavorably known to the police or to the justice system. are using this crisis to express themselves in violence, and that for once, the response of the government, it is implacable, it is clear, it is firm: the sending of the Raid and the GIGN ”, he said. he indicates.
In this island where a third of the population lives below the poverty line (Insee), the violence began after several days of union mobilization to challenge the vaccination obligation of caregivers and firefighters. However, the minister assured that there was no parallel to be made with the strike of 2009 which paralyzed Guadeloupe for 45 days.
A “forum for dialogue”
This “has nothing to do with”, because in 2009 the general strike “took place through trade unions with companies and public services closed, because people exercise their right to strike”. Sébastien Lecornu indicated that since the start of the crisis, “95 arrests” had taken place and “around thirty first criminal responses have just been given by the courts of Guadeloupe”.
On Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced the creation of a “forum for dialogue” in order to “convince and support individually, humanely”, the professionals concerned by the vaccine obligation, in an attempt to calm the conflagration. For the minister however, “there would be something scandalous in not applying the law of the Republic on the vaccination obligation of caregivers and firefighters in Guadeloupe”. According to him, 87% of caregivers and 43% of firefighters are vaccinated.