2023-08-21 23:31:07
Dissent or cultural exception? The president of the executive council of the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique Serge Letchimy refused on Sunday to honor a request from the prefect to withdraw the deliberation of the local assembly which establishes Creole as the official language of the island “in the same way as French. “.
For the head of the local executive, this refusal is “a declaration of dissent in the contemporary but historical debate that we are opening between inalienable natural rights and the right to equality”. A way to defend the recognition of the Martinican Creole language.
“I will assume this condemnation”, assures Serge Letchimy
The text opposed by the prefect was voted on May 25, 3 days after the commemoration of 175 years since the end of slavery on the island. But the representative of the State recalled by way of argument that “the first paragraph of article 2 of the Constitution of August 4, 1958 provides that the language of the Republic is French”. This earned the prefect to request the withdrawal of a deliberation “tainted with illegality”.
Anticipating an appeal before the administrative court, Serge Letchimy subsequently declared: “I know that we have already been condemned by the judicial institutions which will not recognize the legitimacy of this fight. However, it is with dignity that I will assume this condemnation. »
This is not the first step towards an affirmation of identity, even independence since the return of Serge Letchimy to the top of the Martinican executive in 2021. In May 2022, he had participated in the opening of a congress of elected Martinicans, Guyanese and Guadeloupe where possible institutional changes for these overseas territories were discussed. More significantly, it was under his leadership that Martinique adopted the red-green-black flag, a symbol of regional separatists.
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