France has sent police reinforcements, including elite units, to its Caribbean island La Guadeloupe after a week of riots escalated this weekend, amid protests against the introduction of restrictions on movement to counter the coronavirus epidemic, and to a background of long-simmering social unrest.
Sixty Covid-19 deaths have been recorded in hospitals in Guadeloupe since August 9 out of a total of 357 since the beginning of the pandemic and incidence rate has shot up to 1,912 cases per 100,000 population.
One of the recurring complaints of consumers living in France's overseas regions is how high the cost of living is compared with Metropolitan France. At the heart of this criticism is the 'octroi de mer' or dock dues, a tax paid on the import of goods to these territories. This tax has been in place since 1670 and the start of the French colonial system. And the European Union has just agreed to continue it to at least 2027. Julien Sartre reports on the history and impact of a tax that is a throwback to colonial days and which still leaves a burden on often poor French consumers living in overseas départements.
French President Emmanuel Macron is on a tour of the French Caribbean islands of Saint Martin and Saint Barthélemy, which were both devastated last week by Hurricane Irma, promising aid to rebuild homes and infrastructures, while controversy continues over his government's management of events before and after the disaster.
The Hersant newspaper group disintegrated a few years ago, following massive job losses, the closure of titles and insolvencies. However the demise of this once-powerful group which had owned close to 50% of the national and local French press, is still having an impact in French overseas territories where it also had a strong base. Julien Sartre reports on the lingering effects of the fall of a newspaper empire which had influence around the globe.
The French president, on a tour of Caribbean islands, paid homage to slaves and their sacrifices at the memorial, the first of its kind on French soil.
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