During a press briefing organized on Tuesday February 28, the delegate prefect of the Northern Islands, Vincent Berton, wanted to come back to the events of last week, namely the shots fired during the Jouvert Morning and the exceptional ban on an edition of Mardis de Grand-Case.
If the president of the Collectivity, Louis Mussington, had already spoken about the shots fired on the sidelines of the parade on Saturday February 18, causing two minor injuries, the delegate prefect declared for his part "you must be aware that it would have could have been dramatic given the presence of families and children. The carnival is a moment of jubilation, popular, friendly, and it could have turned into a real tragedy. Obviously, I very strongly condemn the perpetrators of these totally irresponsible acts. It is already irresponsible to shoot but even more in the middle of a crowd with women and children. The gendarmerie will do everything to bring the perpetrators to justice so that they can be punished”. If the tragedy was narrowly avoided, the unfortunate event served as a trigger, the whole organization of the festival will be redesigned internally, as well as the next major events. Without intending to penalize the carnival which, for the politician and the entire Saint-Martin population, is an extremely strong cultural moment in the territory, the guarantees of security and protection of Saint-Martin residents are at the heart of Vincent Berton's prerogatives. "it is a responsibility of the State". A debriefing of the 2022 edition of the carnival, which has resumed a normal rhythm in the post-covid period, will take place between the services of the Prefecture and the Community in order to adapt the safety rules and the way of organizing such an event. The particularity of the situation and the events that occurred on the Saturday in question led the State to ban the Tuesdays of Grand-Case rally scheduled for February 21: "We wanted to concentrate the security forces on the Marigot carnival in order to avoid and prevent any tragedy. In particular, following what happened on Saturday, we could fear that people would want to settle their accounts again, hence our desire to concentrate a maximum of forces on Monday and Shrove Tuesday to allow everything to go as well as possible, which was the case”.
If the exceptional postponement of the edition of Mardis de Grand-Case from February 21 to Wednesday 22 proposed to the organizing team could not materialize, the event which resumed its usual weekly calendar on February 28 continues to receive all state support. "There is no doubt about it," confirmed the Prefect. _Vx
https://faxinfo.fr/en/reglementation-sur-lorganisation-des-grands-evenements-les-propos-du-prefet-vincent-berton/
