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Information report on the institutional future of overseas territories
Hello everyone,
The APROFED association is getting back to you this weekend to forward to you the information report submitted by the overseas delegation on the institutional future of overseas territories (no. 774) 1 , 370 pages long, submitted on Wednesday, January 15, 2025 to the National Assembly, prepared in part by the Guyanese MP Davy Rimane .
If, after analysis, the diagnosis and findings correspond to reality, the association unfortunately regrets the finality of the said report which ends with a series of recommendations à la carte for each overseas territory without an overall vision and far from the “Call of Fort de France” which wished to review the relationship with the State.
The association is also surprised that no recommendations are proposed concerning New Caledonia, nor for Martinique, which experienced unrest during the preparation of the report, even though the diagnosis reflects the wishes of the local populations.
We nevertheless learn certain interesting elements , as in the Senate report of the same type published in 2023 2 , corresponding to the vision of the institutional future desired by the overseas representatives with regard to France, namely:
– a desire to leave sovereign powers to the State but to recover and manage all other powers at the local level without interference from the State, thus achieving true autonomy or legislative sovereignty, which is what federalism allows and what the association advocates.
Serge Letchimy, President of the Martinique Collectivity : “In my opinion, the role of the prefect should be eliminated and replaced by a representative of the sovereign affairs of the State. He should, in my opinion, be replaced by a person responsible for the major interests and sovereign issues of the State, the army, currency, justice, and law. Everything concerning internal and local development must remain in the hands of the communities.”
On the Polynesian side , the State must remain at a strategic level, define the major interests, the major objectives and leave their autonomy to local communities.
In Réunion , the Paré (Reunion Party), founded in May 2022, advocates the choice of “full legislative and regulatory autonomy”
The Guyana Agreements , followed by the “General States of Guyana”, call for a “paradigm shift” in the form of a new status for Guyana, “like Corsica, Polynesia, New Caledonia, where there is a local assembly and a local government.” This framework should allow Guyana to develop its own legal standards, while respecting its specificities and interests, but also to have broad powers. According to Mr. Gabriel Serville, regarding the current institutional organization of Guyana, the question of the transition to the principle of legislative specialization seems to us more than necessary, and even indispensable.
For Wallis and Futuna , according to Mr. Munipoese Muli’aka’aka, the principle of legislative specialty should guarantee a better adaptation of national texts to local specificities .
In the Senate report, the two rapporteurs thus envisage recognising the right of the communities of Article 74 to exercise all powers, with the exception of sovereign powers.
– the repeated mention of a federal solution.
In Polynesia , Ms. Vannina Crolas, Minister of Civil Service, Employment, Labor, Modernization of Administration and Vocational Training, admitted that Polynesia will move towards a federal state with federated archipelagos. Some pro-independence mayors are also in a quasi-federal approach. The Polynesian government wants to create a specific title for Polynesia in the French Constitution, similar to what already exists for New Caledonia, whose federal status, resulting from the Matignon-Oudinot agreements and mentioned in them, was subsequently transformed within the Constitution into a sui generis status. By wanting a similar status, French Guiana and Corsica are also advocating for a federal concept, already known and proposed by the State more than 60 years ago for other of these territories (Africa + Asia).
Indeed, as early as 1958, Aimé Césaire advocated for the transformation of Martinique into a region within the framework of a federated Republic. General de Gaulle rejected this proposal. However, a year later, the latter proposed the federal solution to the Algerians in the Echo d’Alger.
The Oceanian Awakening, a political party which essentially defends the interests of the Wallisian and Futunian community of New Caledonia , also campaigns for the creation of a “French-style Commonwealth” which would bring together the different French territories in the Pacific, like the French Union and the post-war Community , whose articles now repealed in the constitution could be reinstated.
As already mentioned in a previous article, the association strongly doubts that the State will apply this hypothesis to the extent that the prospect of significant progress concerning Corsica, which is not an overseas territory, thus gives hope to overseas elected officials who wish it – as indeed to those of certain mainland regions, notably Brittany – of rapid progress in the institutional development of their territories. Thus , if a federal system overseas were to be established, it is certain that the metropolitan regions (created by federalists) would also ask to be integrated into it , thus leading France to definitively switch to a federal system.
Is this why the report of the Guyanese deputy, although exhaustively listing all the statuses of other overseas collectivities around the world, other than French and with a federal majority, did not propose this solution? The State’s refusal of this solution in the past to these fathers (Césaire, Senghor, etc.) may have scalded it on the subject. Or is it the fact of having carried out this work with a conservative and also a member of the presidential party at the very beginning that did not allow, unlike the senators’ report, to be more impactful and innovative in order to define a global solution. Doesn’t arriving at the conclusion that each collectivity wants a particular status 4 lead to playing the State’s game, which is to divide and rule and above all to waste time in the negotiation and drafting of these statutes in order to ultimately always maintain control over these territories and centralized power in Paris.
The report highlights that the lack of a strategic vision for the overseas territories is detrimental to their development and integration within the Republic. Unfortunately, the association does not see this vision in this report either, unlike the project we are currently promoting, which is the only perspective not only for New Caledonia but also for all overseas territories and, perhaps, for France itself within the EU.
It would also seem that this report, as well as that of the Senate, are both already outdated since a 3rd report on the same theme, this time requested directly by the President of the Republic 5 , seems to go in the opposite direction of the first 2, advocating economic development before institutional change while the overseas representatives are asking for exactly the opposite, namely to have a free hand in managing their own internal skills in order to be able to develop their territories. This last report, as some journalists point out, should thus soon cause “grinding of teeth” in the overseas territories 6 , as demonstrated by the reaction of the deputy Rimane during the presentation of his report.
You can also find the entire hearing of Davy Rimane and Philippe Gosselin on the institutional future of the Overseas Territories dated 15/01/2025 on the LCP channel of the National Assembly with the commentary provided by MP Emmanuel Tjibaou at the following link:
Audition de Davy Rimane et Philippe Gosselin sur l’avenir institutionnel des Outre-mer – 15/01/2025
We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.
The APROFED association