When Ericka Bareights was in February appointed as secretary of state for the French government’s new ministerial post for “real equality” of social and economic conditions between the populations of France’s overseas territories and that on the mainland, the announcement was met with mockery by some commentators in metropolitan France, for who the junior minister’s unusual title appeared to suggest that there might be a “virtual equality”, or that some equalities that were more real than others.
But in France’s far-flung dependent territories, the move was given an enthusiastic reception, and notably in Mayotte, the French Indian Ocean département (equivalent to a county) situated between the east African coast and Madagascar. In France’s overseas regions, which suffer from a significantly inferior quality of life compared to the mainland, the notion of “real equality” is a sorely awaited hope.
It was shortly before a series of riots and strikes shook Mayotte earlier this year, mostly in protest at working conditions and social benefits that are way below those in mainland France, when Socialist Party Member of Parliament (MP) for the Caribbean island and département of Guadeloupe, Victorin Lurel, delivered a report commissioned by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls setting out the foundations for the proposed bill of law to bring living conditions in the overseas territories in line with those of the mainland. Lurel described the programme as heralding “an economic and social Big Bang”.
Enlargement : Illustration 1
Lurel detailed a series of measures, territory by territory, that he considered will sufficiently fuel local economies in order for the GDP per inhabitant of the French overseas regions to eventually equal that on the mainland. Currently, the GDP per inhabitant of the overseas départements is about 60% lower than the national average.
The proportion of people living under the poverty level in French Polynesia, French Guyana and the Indian Ocean island of La Réunion is between two and three times higher than on the mainland. Unemployment levels are similarly about three times higher, at an average 30% of the active population, while youth unemployment reaches about 60% (compared to 24% in mainland France). The problem is compounded by high levels of illiteracy, while wealth inequality at a local level is far greater than on the mainland.
The French government underlined these and other glaring disparities in its subsequent bill of law to radically improve conditions in the overseas territories, which began its passage through parliament’s lower house, the National Assembly, on October 4th. Ericka Bareigts - who in August was promoted to the post of Minister for Overseas Territories – boldly declared before the National Assembly that the proposed legislation was “a revolution, a new chapter in the battle against slavery”.
“It should be remembered that the law on départementalisation, which grants our territories a civic and institutional equality, dates from 1946,” Bareigts, who is an MP for the island of La Réunion, told Mediapart. “Time is needed. It should not be thought that this law is a catalogue, a mish-mash of an inventory, by which everyone can ask for what they want, nor that real equality is all about a social catching-up. The manner of thinking must change.”
Two camps confronted each other during the debates over the bill. On one side were those in favour of far-reaching legislation, led by the bill’s rapporteur and author of the report on which it is based, Victorin Lurel. The Guadeloupian MP , himself a former Minister for Overseas Territories between 2012 and 2014, insisted that what are called “plans of convergence” between the French state and the local councils of overseas territories, which are 10- and 20-year programmes to reach conditions that are equal with the mainland, be transformed into binding “contracts” that carry penalties if not respected. “The ‘plans of convergence’ must at all cost be turned into mandatory State-region contracts so that the law is not limited to the announcement of grand principles over [a period of] 20 years, but rather truly reduces the gaps and shortfalls between the overseas territories and the mainland,” he said.
Bareigts, meanwhile, argued for “the free administration of [overseas] territorial public bodies which does not allow for the imposition of further contracts for the regions”. She justified her opposition to Lurel’s proposition as being in the interest of “the long term for the path to equality”. However, the minister eventually gave way and accepted that the “convergence” programmes be presented as binding contracts.
It was at the last minute that the government also accepted a number of other propositions for amendments to the legislation. One of these was an amendment by a Socialist Party MP for the Caribbean island of La Martinique, which lies beside Guadeloupe, who called for an extension of the tax relief accorded to businesses in French overseas territory free zones through to 2019, to allow further time for an “effective” replacement to the scheme. The tax relief of the free zones, which were introduced in 2009 in a previous law to help the economies of overseas territories, was originally planned to be phased out by next year.
The legislation also allows for at least a third of any tender issued by councils in overseas territories to be given specifically to local companies, while exoneration of VAT on income of local small businesses is to be raised to 70,000 euros annually, up from the current 32,000 euros. Local trades unions will have the right to a permanent seat on representative councils in companies, as already is the case for the national French trades unions.
“There is no economic progress without social progress,” commented Monique Orphé, a socialist MP for a constituency in La Réunion. “We have obtained an extension of the family top-up [welfare benefits], but also measures against obesity and alcoholism with the prohibition of advertisements for rum and whisky in the vicinity of schools.” Meanwhile, the self-employed will be entitled to receive family welfare benefits without having to prove they have paid into the social charges system.
The bill gave special attention to the situation in Mayotte, notably with the raising of welfare benefits in line with entitlements granted on the mainland. The archipelago, which became a département of France in 2011, suffers from glaring social inequalities and a deep social crisis, exacerbated by clandestine immigration. The measures prompted far-right Front National party MP Marion Maréchal-Le Pen to protest: “You are increasing welfare benefits which will increase [the number of] illegals locally. Reform birthright citizenship and put in place bloodright citizenship.”
A Socialist Party MP for Mayotte, Ibrahim Aboubacar, joined the call for a reform of the right to citizenship by virtue of place of birth. He argued for an amendment that would limit the granting of French nationality to a child to the condition that “at least one of the parents has legal status [of residence] at the time of birth”. His proposal was rejected, and is now to be examined by the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court.
Maïna Sage, a centre-right MP for French Polynesia, where some islands are a 3-hour air flight from the capital Papeete, demanded that the Pacific Ocean territory also be granted special attention. “We have the right to specific measures, given that it is the subject of real equality, by reason of the immensity of our territory,” Sage argued. “We often point out that our territory is the size of Europe, and it’s made up of a maritime surface. The continuity of our public services, the transport of school pupils notably, should be the object of heightened support from the state.” However, she failed to gain an amendment to the bill.
After the its adoption in the lower house on Tuesday (when 314 MPs voted in favour, with 140 against and 29 abstentions), the bill will now be submitted before the Senate, the upper house, although a date has not yet been decided. The proposed legislation will then be handed back to the National Assembly for a final vote.
The timetable is a tight one, given that French parliament will halt its debates in February due to the presidential and ensuing parliamentary elections that begin next April. If, as appears certain, it is adopted into law, it will be the final significant reform of François Hollande’s five-year presidency, and perhaps in more ways than one. Hollande, whose popularity ratings remain low in opinion surveys, has yet to announce whether he will run for a second term of office, but if he does it will be crucial for him to garner the same large support he received in 2012 from the electorate in France’s overseas territories.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Graham Tearse