By Johnny Askounis/ info@eurohoops.net
Born in Fort-de-France, Martinique, Mathias Lessort went on to represent France in numerous international competitions, winning a silver medal in the 2024 Olympic Games and bronze in the 2019 FIBA World Cup,
The superstar of the defending champions of the Turkish Airlines EuroLeague, Panathinaikos Aktor, opened up about the current situation in Martinique, extending his support to ongoing movements in his native island, similar to protests in 2009.
“The cost of living is becoming unbearable”, he said, per L’Equipe, “The people of Martinique have been taken hostage by certain people who have a monopoly on food protocol, the real estate market, vehicles, pretty much everything.”
“It is not normal that something that costs two euros in mainland France costs seven or eight euros there. Because salaries do not follow, and yet we pay the same taxes, have the same duties. We have a passport, we represent France, like me at the Olympic Games. It is unacceptable that we do not have the same rights, that we cannot feed ourselves like other French people,” continued Lessort.
“Many of my relatives and acquaintances would go to demonstrate peacefully, but would end up being tear-gassed or charged by the police,” he cited personal relationships in Martinique.
“It goes further than people think,” explained Lessort, “We have had to live for decades in a territory where the water and land are polluted, particularly by the use of chlordecone, a pesticide that caused a health disaster and explains why our island is one of the places with the highest cancer rates in the world. Both my parents had cancer. The state of the roads and hospitals is deplorable. There are water and electricity cuts every two days. If it were like that in mainland France, people would go crazy, it would have exploded a long time ago. No one takes care of it. And the tax on imports and deliveries substantially increases the cost of living. The békés have imprisoned our society. They are protected, particularly by the state officers.”
“This situation is deeply abnormal in a place like France, which advocates liberty, equality, fraternity,” he furthered, “We are left aside in the Antilles. With what is happening, it is even more important to me to promote my island. It is a somewhat isolated place that too few people know about, but which deserves to be highlighted, which has a lot of potential, young talents in sports, cinema, music, business.”
“We have a young generation coming up, less afraid to go to the front to defend their rights. I plan to come back and live here after my career, and I don’t want my children and all the people on my island to live in these conditions. I don’t want there to be another strike in ten or fifteen years, and everyone being in danger again. Things have to change for good, and now,” he concluded.