Guadeloupe: anti-health pass protesters settle for the night in the Regional Council


This protest is led by a group of organizations, particularly trade unions and citizens, who are very demanding.

Demonstrators who burst Thursday in the late morning in the hemicycle of the Regional Council of Guadeloupe, decided to spend the night there to continue what has been described by elected officials as an act of “unprecedented violence ”, which illustrates a dispute that has lasted for several weeks in the archipelago. “It has become the people’s house ”, told the local press Gaby Clavier, trade unionist for the health branch of the UGTG, after a meeting with the president of the region Ary Chalus. “The president pledged to get us a meeting with parliamentarians on Tuesday ”, told AFP Jocelyn Zou, FO trade unionist and firefighter mobilized against the vaccine obligation.

The demonstrators, who intend to stay “sleep in the regional hotel “, must decide on Friday what to do with 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.

This intrusion at the end of a plenary session of elected officials was condemned by the entire political class of Guadeloupe. “These facts (…) stem from a radicalization which uses terror ” and are “An unacceptable attack on democracy”, estimated the elected officials of the Permanent Commission 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! “, had denounced earlier the regional executive, criticizing in a press release of “unworthy intimidation and violence ”. According to the region, “more than a hundred people” entered the chamber at the end of the morning, but in total “more than 400 people” invaded the premises.

Vaccine resistance

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 bodies ”, they wrote in a statement.

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 the negotiations intended to put a end to this crisis. “No claim justifies hindering the smooth running of an assembly of elected officials in full plenary session”, overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu tweeted.

SEE ALSO – Covid-19: forced vaccination is never acceptable, according to the UN

“Financial controllers”

We want elected officials to vote on a motion to bring the state to the negotiating table ” because he has “the financial levers for many negotiating points ”, explained Jean-Marie Nomertin, leader of the CGTG union, present in the hemicycle.

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 “hanging“On December 31 and could”move towards a new profession“Via a”support and professional retraining unit ”.

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 on Thursday by opponents of the vaccination obligation and the health pass, but in smaller proportions. Protesters blocked access to the community hotel with pallets, branches and trash cans, AFP noted. A delegation was finally received by elected officials and the demonstrators left the scene at the end of the morning.


SEE ALSO – “No country will be able to get out of the pandemic with booster doses”, according to the director of the WHO



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