“Commitment kept: I'm here! These were the first words spoken by the Head of State at the foot of the Falcon, which landed last Saturday at 14pm sharp at Grand-Case airport. Emmanuel Macron had in fact committed to return to the people of Saint-Martin, a year after the passage of the Irma monster, in order to check the progress of the reconstruction works. And for the President of the Republic, “we are far from the point! "
The tone is set ! Accompanied by Agnès Buzyn, Minister of Health, Annick Girardin, Minister of Overseas Territories, Jacques Mézard, Minister of Territorial Cohesion and Sébastien Lecornu, Secretary of State to the Minister of Ecological and Inclusive Transition, Emmanuel Macron takes the direction of Quartier d'Orléans, one of the districts most affected by Irma and which is still struggling to rebuild itself today.
After a first stop at the Maison de Services au Public (MSAP), inaugurated on September 24, the Head of State quickly shatters the protocol of his visit which had been organized for him by offering himself an interminable bath of crowd with the natives, exasperated by their current living conditions. Emmanuel Macron listens to the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants and then takes the decision, surprising his ministers and especially his close guard, to "invite themselves" in the privacy of several families residing in social housing. A few minutes later, during an improvised press point in the presence of national and local media, the Head of State did not hesitate to point the finger at the failings of certain social landlords on the island. " I'm mad. What I just saw shocked me! It is unacceptable what we see there, there are social landlords, major economic players, who rent 500 or 600 euros for apartments where for a year, the roofs have still not been redone! ", Notes the President before driving the point home:" Saint-Martin is an island in which there has been too much collusion, too many agreements, sometimes even corruption, it is high time that it stopped. We are going to put more controls because I cannot accept what I saw today (note: Saturday September 29 at QO).
Schools where the slow work…
Other hot topics were discussed with the Head of State, in particular that of the slowness of the reconstruction of schools: “It is always the children who are penalized. They are your children of the Republic. You talk about unemployment, but these are time bombs that are in the process of defeating school, ”plague a parent of a student. From there, Emmanuel Macron takes back his hand or rather the word and tries to justify himself by declaring: "The State has done more than its skills for Saint-Martin. The State for a year has put 500 million euros to support the community, that's a lot. But I cannot trample on the institutional choice of Saint-Martinois ”. The island has in fact a great deal of autonomy, in particular in matters of education and public procurement. "All the schools did not reopen quickly enough, because the work was not done and we preferred to carry out work elsewhere, it is not acceptable", he said, promising to "Put further pressure on the community".
Social landlords in the eye of the storm…
Before joining the sister island of Saint Barth yesterday noon, Emmanuel Macron once again expressed his anger at the slow pace of reconstruction, during a press conference organized at Orient Bay.
The President of the Republic has particularly targeted social landlords. According to him, the professionals did not take their responsibilities by not carrying out the necessary work despite the funds released by the State: "it is unacceptable". Clearly, he gave them until the end of the year to resolve the situation! "I ask all social landlords to carry out work before December 31, 2018, if they are not completed by that date, criminal proceedings will be launched", warned the President of the Republic, specifying that they would then be considered to be “sleep merchants”.
The ultimatum is launched!_AF
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language of truth, it was time to put an end to these wealthy corruptors and greedy for money, these old demons of the town hall and the Semsamar ... today retired but still in business, prosecuted but not yet condemned
Lamentable to see a people who voted for article 74 incapable of solving their internal problems. What a shame Macron has put us!
The best thing that could happen in Saint-Martin is that we have to rely only on ourselves, maybe then we would finally roll up our sleeves, we would realize that our island is our boat and that what the other does also concerns us: denounce corruption when we witness it, refuse it when we can benefit from it, denounce people paid for doing nothing.
Let's stop blaming the other: it's because of the state, it's because of the community, it's because of previous elected officials, it's because of ... everyone except me .
May Irma be the year zero of an awareness that the mentalities of our small island must change.