French President Nicolas Sarkozy will visit Martinique and Guadeloupe on Thursday and Friday (June 25-26, 2009) along with Minister of Interior and Overseas Territories Michèle Alliot-Marie, Overseas Territories Secretary of State Yves Jégo, and inter-ministerial delegate Patrick Karam, among others.
In Martinique, President Sarkozy will pay homage to the rebel “dissidents” of the Vichy regime, who joined General de Gaulle’s forces during World War II. In Guadeloupe, he will meet with directors and representatives of various business enterprises and will visit voluntary military service units [Service Militaire Adapté or SMA], which intend to offer employment to young volunteers from the French Antilles. The SMA is expected to offer 6,000 positions to volunteers between the ages of 18 to 26 in 2012 (in contrast to the 2,900 positions presently available). Articles addressing this controversial move are not yet available.
These visits are part of decisions made by the organization of “Overseas General States” [Etats Généraux de l'Outre-mer] created to address overseas “issues” after the general strikes that took place in Guadeloupe and Martinique (44 days in Guadeloupe and 38 in Martinique) earlier this year. In Guadeloupe, the leading spokesperson for LKP, Elie Domota, stated that “everything has already been decided the State” and that any decision-making has excluded the Martinican and Guadeloupean population at large.
For full article (in French), see http://www.lepoint.fr/actualites-politique/2009-06-19/nicolas-sarkozy-aux-antilles-jeudi-et-vendredi/917/0/354195
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