Papeete (AFP)
President Emmanuel Macron stopped by the side of the road to discuss with activists of the anti-nuclear association 193, committing to transparency on nuclear tests and assuring that he had "heard" them, during his visit to French Polynesia.
"I can't ask you to trust me after you've been lied to for so long by not sharing information, that's right, and so I think trust is built by saying everything, by sharing the whole, being much more transparent and it is true that we have not done the job so far ", he declared in front of a group of about fifty demonstrators on the island of Moorea, among which floated independence flags.
"You will excuse me, but we cannot help thinking that you are at the end of your term, so words are one thing, but afterwards, concretely? There are urgent requests, people who are suffering. We ask you to assume what the State has done to these Polynesian people, a forgiveness and really a support ", retorted Léna Lenormand, vice-president of the association 193, which refers to the number of tests. nuclear power plants carried out in Polynesia.
"I know that for a very long time there was silence and a refusal to even share information, to take responsibility for things, to be transparent. (...) I will speak tonight, but I have you heard, and I heard what you were asking me, and you will see my answer, "replied the Head of State.
"I pledge that things will change in terms of compensation procedures because it is true that the 2010 law today leaves people in distress, with procedures that are too long," continued Mr. Macron.
On the other hand, national solidarity and the responsibility of the State, "it is not the same thing", he affirmed.
For the president, "it is normal, and it is a duty of the nation, to accompany all Polynesians and Polynesians who today are struck by new forms of cancer. And there must be a offer of care, doctors and researchers, taking into account the double insularity in which you are ".
"Another thing is to say that all the people who have new forms of cancer, how much even they have nothing to do with the trials, have to be taken care of under the trials. It's not the same thing. ", he estimated.
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