“Life is expensive in Martinique and Guadeloupe,” Henry said on CBS, where he works as a football pundit. “I want to send a message of support. Please, enough is enough … Lower the prices because people can’t survive on what they earn,” he added, before delivering a message in Creole.
Henry, who coached the silver-medalist French Olympic football squad this summer in Paris, was born and raised near the French capital, but his mother is from Martinique and his father hails from the nearby archipelago of Guadeloupe.
According to a 2022 study by the French statistics office, food prices in Martinique are 40 percent more expensive than in mainland France, while a 2021 study found that the median income in Martinique is more than a third lower than in mainland France.
The French government sent additional police units and imposed a curfew earlier this month as tensions rose.
Last week, the state signed a protocol with private sector representatives aimed at cutting the price of the most-consumed goods in Martinique by 20 percent, but protests are showing no signs of slowing down.
Martinique and Guadeloupe were colonized by France in the 17th century, and both territories became integral to the French transatlantic slave trade, with plantations heavily reliant on enslaved African labor.
They remained French colonies until 1946, when they were granted the status of French overseas departments and included into the French administration.
