It is for the French Communist Party (PCF) a tactical exercise, as much as a doctrinal effort: the training led by Fabien Roussel held Wednesday, March 29, in its headquarters on the Place du Colonel-Fabien in Paris, an invigorating colloquium on overseas. The initial title of the event which brought together parliamentarians and academics, “Differentiation at the service of republican equality”, had to be amended – it caused some internal friction, admits the secretary general of the PCF. Go for “Overseas law at the service of development and republican equality”.
Basically, the problem remains: “During the presidential election, I felt the urgent need to update our thinking, we are late, we are not in phase with the peoples of overseas”indicates the former candidate, approaching the congress of his party which will take place in Marseilles from April 7 to 10.
In Cayenne or Pointe-à-Pitre, the mistrust vis-à-vis the centralizing State, the disillusion born of the failures of the egalitarian promise of the Republic are expressed with force. It is in the opposition, on the left, that the deputies of Guyana, the Antilles or Reunion weigh. And more particularly within the communist group of the Democratic and Republican Left (GDR), 22 elected, which could not have been formed without its 10 ultramarines. “They took power within the GDR group”, observes even without amenity Younous Omarjee, MEP La France insoumise (LFI) of Reunion. According to him, it is thanks to the emergence of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), which has introduced more consultation between the groups in the Assembly, that the deputies from overseas have come closer together. Meeting in Cayenne in January, they announced that they wanted “hunting in packs”.
The failure of departmentalization
In their “call from Fort-de-France” in May 2022, six regional presidents had already called on President Emmanuel Macron to review relations between overseas territories and the State, in an “à la carte” scheme, territory by territory. The collective momentum is not self-evident, when French Guiana wants independence, Martinique autonomy, Réunion a « optimisation » of the Constitution, while Mayotte aspires to accelerate its departmentalization. She is alone: carried by Aimé Césaire, the departmentalization obtained in 1946 as an emancipation vis-à-vis colonization is now synonymous with failure, in that it has neither corrected the social inequalities between the departments of overseas (DOM) and the metropolis, nor changed the asymmetrical model of the colonial economy. “It results in very strong social, even socio-racial tensions, and a questioning of the relationship of territories to the State, which is increasingly perceived as a foreign body”analyzes Justin Daniel, professor of political science at the University of the West Indies.
You have 48.9% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.