A handful of anti-colonial activists on Sunday debunked the statues of Joséphine de Beauharnais and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, in Fort-de-France. Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu denounced the "illegal use of force" by these activists, who had warned of their intention in the middle of the week.

The statues of Joséphine de Beauharnais and Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc were brought to the ground Sunday in Fort-de-France by a handful of anti-colonial activists, an AFP journalist noted. The depictions of these controversial figures were knocked down with clubs and ropes.

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That of Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon I and native of Martinique where her family owned a farm, had already been beheaded nearly 30 years ago and thus left on the Place de la Savane in Fort-de-France. On Sunday, protesters then placed her on a stake, a police source said.

The activists did not want to wait

A few meters away, that of Pierre Belain d'Esnambuc, who led the installation of the French colony in Martinique in 1635, was also unbolted. It was erected in 1935 on the occasion of the tercentenary of the start of colonization in Martinique.

Since the middle of the week, the activists had already warned, in a video on social networks, of their intention to unbolt the statue of Joséphine de Beauharnais if this was not done by the municipality before Sunday. That of Esnambuc, meanwhile, was on the program of the municipal council on Tuesday, which was to ratify his move in August, but the activists did not want to wait.

"Ineligible action"

"Nothing can justify the unbolting of statues by the illegal use of force", reacted the overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu on Twitter, "strongly" condemning the events of Fort-de-France.

Nothing can justify the unbolting of statues by the illegal use of force: I strongly condemn the events of Fort-de-France on this Sunday. https://t.co/I5faAlI36t

- Sébastien Lecornu (@SebLecornu) July 27, 2020

The prefect of Martinique, who according to a police source had given orders not to intervene, for his part condemned in a statement "this destruction which is the inadmissible action of a violent minority". These unbolts come almost two months after that of two statues of Victor Schoelcher in Martinique (May 22, 2020, the day of the abolition of slavery on the island) by these same activists.