Mr. Prefect delegated to the representative of the State in the communities of St Barthélemy and Saint-Martin,
Your Excellency Governor Holiday,
Honorable President of the Parliament of Sint Maarten,
Madam the Deputy of Saint-Martin and St Barthélemy,
Madam Senator of Saint-Martin,
Honorable Prime Minister of Sint Maarten and Council of Ministers,
Dear Vice-Presidents and elected members of the Territorial Council of Saint-Martin,
Dear elected representatives and representatives of socio-professional organizations,
Dear representatives of neighborhood councils, and presidents of neighborhood associations,
Dear inhabitants of the island of Saint-Martin,
Chers amis,
Every November 11, Saint-Martin's Day, is a time of fraternal, family and friendly celebration for all Saint-Martin.
It is a moment placed under the sign of history, culture and heritage.
A day that defines us, brings us together and allows us to overcome our differences, to overcome our little quarrels.
Because what brings us together is more important than what separates us.
And what unites us, we all know it: it is fidelity to our sweet saint-martin land, to its freedoms, to its culture and to its identity.
Loyalty, Unity and Pride: these are three values that must be preserved, encouraged and cherished!
In 2020, a terrible year, this celebration tasted of anxiety, bitterness and frustrations ...
This is still the case in 2021, because we are still forced to organize this ceremony virtually.
"Without contact", contrary to the values and habits of Saint-Martin ...
I admit that this exercise has a somewhat unreal dimension ...
Next year, November 11, 2022, it will therefore appear essential to me to organize a “normal” ceremony in Marigot. That is to say “face to face”, as we now say ...
It is my will.
The improvement of the health situation should allow it, with the continuation of the vaccination campaign, the arrival of promising treatments without forgetting, of course, the material and human reinforcement of the Hospital Center that the elected officials of Saint-Martin are calling for.
The theme chosen this year, "We stand triumphant in the face of adversity", has an important and moving meaning for us who, over the past four years, have gone through the worst natural disaster in the Caribbean and then the global scourge of COVID-19. .
We overcame adversity after Cyclone IRMA hit.
And this, despite the obstacles, the blockages, sometimes the sarcasm ...
Reconstruction has progressed well.
Of course, much still remains to be accomplished, which sometimes causes legitimate bitterness.
I am thinking here, in particular, of the clean-up operations of the Simpson Bay lagoon.
But day after day, the scars of the hurricane are disappearing from our landscape.
We have been overcoming adversity since March 2020 and the eruption of COVID into our lives.
The efforts made in recent months have often been painful and restrictive, even if, in Saint-Martin, unlike our compatriots from the Antilles and Guyana, we have avoided the catastrophe of a re-containment thanks to the pragmatism of the Prefect who joined our island eleven months ago.
Our daily efforts have been taken on with courage, civility and determination by the people of Saint Martin.
They produced encouraging results and now allow us to observe a significant drop in the number of patients and the virtual disappearance of the number of people hospitalized.
So we can live almost normally.
Even if, of course, it is advisable to remain vigilant, and to continue to adopt certain gestures ...
… Which, we have forgotten, are all common sense habits practiced in ancient times. At a time when, in the face of illness, it was necessary to rely more on the virtues of prudence, nature and hygiene.
We will overcome adversity, together, in the face of the threats to come.
Threats in the medium and long term on the one hand, the effects of climate change unfortunately increasing the vulnerability of small island societies like ours.
The rise in the level of the oceans and their increasing acidification will inevitably impact us.
We must prepare for it now, and plan for the massive investments, material and human, which will allow us to adapt to the unstable and worrying world that awaits us.
For that, it will be necessary, in the decades to come, to commit hundreds of millions of euros, of private and above all public credits.
We can count on the solidarity of our respective metropolises, and on the action of the European Union.
We will also and above all have to rely on ourselves: on the resilience of the people of Saint Martin, on their daring, on their entrepreneurial and independent spirit.
Short-term threats, on the other hand. Faced with attacks on our freedoms, and threats of endless restrictions.
The Saint-Martinois, as we all know, are a people who love freedom.
However, in the next few months, if not the next few years, we risk being confronted with a different kind of adversity, more diffuse and sly.
Indeed, for nearly two years, in the name of the fight against COVID, the rules of the democratic game have been put on hold, and our fundamental rights have been severely abused.
I am talking here about the freedom to come and go, the freedom to dispose of one's body, equality before the law, the principle of non-discrimination, as well as key elements of labor law.
The very recent parliamentary episodes thus tend to show that, in the whole of the French Republic, the exception is becoming the rule, and democracy the exception.
And the Saint-Martinois, so attached to their freedoms and their specificities, would have everything to lose if, by adventure, by sliding or by resignation, democracy became a relative value, which can be activated or deactivated according to health crises. And for the benefit of a surveillance company ...
That is to say, a kind of zapping democracy which would no longer protect the citizens, of France and even more of the Overseas, against the arbitrariness and authoritarianism of power.
Here again, if all Saint-Martinois remain attentive, daring and united, common sense will prevail and we will be able to preserve our freedoms, our values and our way of life.
We will work for this every day: let us therefore be vigilant, but above all confident in the future - and in ourselves !.
On this day of celebration of our annual feast, I address all my consideration, my sincerity and my affection to all Saint-Martinoises and to all Saint-Martinese.
Happy Saint-Martin's Day everyone!
Thank you.
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