Martinique:The Collectivité Territoriale de Martinique recognizes Creole as an official language alongside French

In what is said to be a historic decision, the elected representatives of the Collectivité Territoriale de Martinique (CTM) voted almost unanimously to make Creole the territory's national language, alongside French. While the vote seems to have the support of the population, the legality of this proposal at State level is uncertain.

A historic and symbolic decision, but one that could be overturned by the French government.While the plan to make Creole the territory's official language, on the same footing as French, enjoys undoubted support, its anti-constitutional nature could see the lawLouis Boutrin, a local councillor, reminded Martinique la 1ere of the Corsican precedent: "There was a decision by the Bastia administrative court on March 9, 2023 to annul a provision of the regulations of the Corsican assembly, which effectively stipulated that the Corsican language could be used in the same way as the French language.We can also see that certain provisions of the 2021 law on regional languages have recently been removed".

A historic, symbolic decision, but also populist, according to Fred-Michel Tirault, territorial councillor, who abstained from the vote, speaking to Martinique la 1ère: "It's populism to please the people, but knowing full well that the decision is invalid, and that's what's regrettable.They're using a deliberation to make people think it's going to have an impact.On the other hand, we need to fight for Creole to be more widely recognized, to change the law.a, but it's not up to us, elected representatives of the CTM, to take decisions knowing full well that they're not legal.

Source: outremers360.com/