Parliament adopted on Tuesday June 2 a law recognizing the State’s “share of responsibility” in the chlordecone scandal in the Antilles, where more than 90% of the population is contaminated, a “progress” for parliamentarians, although compensation for victims is only set up as an “objective” for the public authorities.
This is the end of a long parliamentary journey: a final unanimous vote from the National Assembly (236 votes in favor) definitively approved this proposal from deputy Élie Califer (Guadeloupe, PS group). “This compromise text will make it possible to restore deeply damaged confidence,” said the MP shortly before the vote in the chamber, believing however that “we must go further on the path to reparations”.
Chlordecone is a pesticide used in banana plantations in Guadeloupe and Martinique until 1993 despite warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO) about its dangerousness. More than 90% of the adult population in Guadeloupe and Martinique is contaminated, according to the National Health Security Agency (Anses), which concluded in July 2021 that there was a probable causal relationship between chlordecone and the risk of prostate cancer.
“If such poisoning had affected 90% of the population of Creuse, Brittany, Île-de-France, the responsibility of the State would have been recognized a long time ago,” Élie Califer told his colleagues. On the government benches, Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou reaffirmed that “the State has its share of responsibilities”. “Recognizing the State’s share of responsibility is a demand for truth. Building a fair, equitable and legally solid reparation system is another requirement,” the minister clarified.
An interministerial inspection mission has been launched to look into this issue, and will visit Guadeloupe and Martinique in a few weeks, with a “report expected in the very next few months”, she said. The bill provided for the recognition by the State of “its responsibility” for “the health, moral, ecological and economic damage suffered by the territories” and “their populations”.
During examination, the senators qualified the writing, providing that the State recognizes its “share” of responsibility. In committee, they also added the notion of “moral damage caused by anxiety”, then came back to it at the request of the government during a tense session in the hemicycle.
“First step”
“I regret it, because this notion spoke concretely of what our compatriots are experiencing in Guadeloupe and Martinique: a permanent concern about the health consequences of chlordecone,” Élie Califer commented on Monday. However, “this point does not call into question the general balance of the text”, he assured.
The compensation component for victims only appears as an “objective” for the State, which some parliamentarians regretted. “This symbolic recognition is a first step, the fight must continue for (…) the terms of compensation,” commented PS spokesperson MP Arthur Delaporte on Tuesday. “We are not entirely satisfied but we were starting from afar, due to the fact that the State did not even want to recognize its partial responsibility (…) this is progress,” underlined Olivier Serva (Guadeloupe, Liot group).
In Martinique, the president of the executive council, Serge Letchimy, welcomed the vote. Chairman in 2019 of a parliamentary commission of inquiry into public responsibilities in the authorization of the pesticide, he believes that this law “fragments a system which tramples on the truth, absolves the guilty and despises the victims”.
The State must in particular work towards the “clean-up of contaminated land and water”, by “making scientific research a national priority”, and “set” itself the objective of “compensation for all victims”. It will also have to look into “the appearance of pathologies developed by women”.
In Pointe-à-Pitre, Mayor Harry Durimel, a long-time advocate against chlordecone, welcomed “progress” while warning that “the fight is far from over”. The law “already invites us to go to court to have the State’s share of responsibility recognized,” he reacted. “A field has opened, but the fight continues,” he added.
The Paris Court of Appeal will say on June 22 whether or not there is reason to reopen the investigation into chlordecone, following the appeal of the civil parties who contest the dismissal of the case in this health scandal. “Chlordecone victims” expect “something concrete and effective: recognition was the first word. He should not be the last,” pointed out Me Christophe Lèguevaques, lawyer for the civil parties, in a press release.
