“This is a historic moment for Martinique,” said Michelle Monrose, president of the flag and anthem commission. Surrounded by the bailiff and members of the Council of Young Citizens, the official presented the results of the vote on Monday, January 16, at the Museum of the History and Ethnography of Fort-de-France. And the big winner was number 242 with a black hummingbird in the center, which got 72% of the votes. The winning anthem in the competition is “Ansanm”, which received 53% of the votes. The proposals will receive €8,000 each and will now represent Martinique at international sporting and cultural events.
Even before the results were announced, with the two finalists in mind, it was decided that the new flag would display the colors red-green-black. The colors first appeared in Martinique 60 years ago under the auspices of the Anti-Colonialist Youth Organization of Martinique, which is not unanimous as some see it as being too linked to the independence movements.
This choice, however, pleased the Territorial Collectivity of Martinique: “These colors are very important to us, they are fixed in our personal and collective consciousness,” insists Michel Monrose, describing in detail the symbol of each color. Red is associated with life, green with freedom, nature and fertility, and black “pays tribute to all those who have been offended.”
The process started four years ago
The vote, which took place from January 2 to 13, not without controversy and with a low turnout – 26,633 voters for the flag, 10,289 for the anthem – is the completion of a process begun four years earlier, in 2018. , CTM had already launched a competition for new symbols, and then-president Alfred Marie-Jeanne chose the Laurison anthem and the Ipseite flag in green, blue and white.
However, the decision was reversed in November 2021 by the courts, the administrative court considered that this choice was not the responsibility of the president of the CTM, but of his assembly. “After the cancellation of the procedure in 2021, we decided that we could not do without martiniqueans. It is for this reason that we have started these consultations,” explained Michelle Monrose, adding: “The Assembly will be able to approve, ratify, and also discuss the decision of the people of Martinique at the next plenary meeting. »
Source: Le Parisien
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