The Martinican Independence Movement or MIM (french: Mouvement Indépendantiste Martiniquais;

Martinican Creole Antillean Creole (Antillean French Creole, Kreyol, Kwéyòl, Patois) is a French-based creole that is primarily spoken in the Lesser Antilles. Its grammar and vocabulary include elements of Carib, English, and African languages. Antillean Creol ...

: ''Mouvman endépandantis matinitjé'' or ''Mouvman endépandantis matiniké'') is a left-wing

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

in the

overseas department The overseas departments and regions of France (french: départements et régions d'outre-mer, ; ''DROM'') are departments of France that are outside metropolitan France, the European part of France. They have exactly the same status as mainlan ...

Martinique Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...

, founded July 1, 1978 by Alfred Marie-Jeanne with the aim of securing "the

decolonization Decolonization or decolonisation is the undoing of colonialism, the latter being the process whereby imperial nations establish and dominate foreign territories, often overseas. Some scholars of decolonization focus especially on separatism, in ...

and

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

of Martinique". Its secretary is the deputy and president of the

Regional Council of Martinique {{Infobox legislature , background_color = , text_color = , name =Regional Council of Martinique , native_name = Conseil régional de la Martinique , native_name_lang = , transcription_name = , le ...

. It has one seat in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

. In 1973, Alfred Marie-Jeanne, along with Garcin Malsa, Lucien Veilleur, and Marc Pulvar (father of

Audrey Pulvar Audrey Pulvar (; born 21 February 1972) is a French journalist, television and radio host and politician. Newsreader of the ''19/20'' on France 3 from 2005 to 2009, Pulvar has been commentator within Laurent Ruquier's show ''On n'est pas couch� ...

), founded an organization called "La Parole au Peuple" (''Word to the People''), which in 1978 became the Martinican Independence Movement.

Party history

Up until the 1990s, MIM had only limited success at the polls. Marie-Jeanne was elected to the General Council but was not re-elected. In 1983, when the first direct election for the newly established Regional Council was held, the party received only three percent of the votes, and in 1989 lost one of their two mayors. The MIM is, following the French regional elections of 2004, the majority party in the regional council. Its elected representatives are Alfred Marie-Jeanne, Daniel Marie-Sainte, Lucien Veilleur, Vincent Duville, Lucien Adenet, Jean-Philippe Nilor, Sylvain Bolinois, Francine Carius, Jean-Claude Soumbo, Raymonde Téreau, Georges Buisson, Marianne Malsa, Marcel Thelcide, Michel Michalon, Lise N'Guéla, Mady Ericher, Marie-Claude Cléry, Gisèle Aribo, Alain Rapon, Laurence Gracienne, Sandrine Saint-Aimé, Yolande Philémont-Montout, Marie-Line Lesdéma, and Aurélie Dalmat. The party also counts among its members two general councillors, Lucien Adenet and Jean-Philippe Nilor, and the mayor of Rivière-Pilote, Lucien Veilleur. In the municipal and cantonal elections in March 2008, the MIM presented 17 at-large candidates. For the first time in its history its candidates received significant support and four were elected mayors: *In Rivière-Salée, Vincent Duville received 2829 votes, 46.05% *In Sainte-Luce, Jean-Philippe Nilor received 2374 votes, 46.63% *In Saint Esprit, Georges Buisson received 1619 votes, 34.87% *In Trois-Ilets, Lise N'Guéla received 1295 votes, 42.73% In the election held on 13 December 2015, ''Gran Sanblé pou ba peyi an chans'', a coalition of the Martinican Independence Movement and right-wing parties, defeated ' , a coalition of left-wing parties, led by

Serge Letchimy Serge Letchimy (; born 13 January 1953) is the President of the Executive Council of Martinique and former member of the National Assembly of France. He represents the island of Martinique's 3rd constituency since June 2007, and is a member ...

, winning 33 seats out of 51 seats of the new

Territorial Collectivity A territorial collectivity (french: collectivité territoriale, previously '), or territorial authority, is a chartered subdivision of France with recognized governing authority. It is the generic name for any subdivision (subnational entity) wit ...

assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...

. The MIM publishes a journal, ''La Parole au Peuple'', and operates a radio station, R.D.L.M. (Radio Lévé Doubout Matinik).

References

External links

{{Authority control Political parties in Martinique Pro-independence parties Separatism in France Separatism in North America Political parties established in 1978