Bicentennial of Haiti's Independence Debt: President Emmanuel Macron Announces Initiatives

_The security and humanitarian crisis in Haiti was on the agenda for discussions at the French Senate yesterday, Thursday. It was an opportunity for the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Jean Noël BARROT, to express France's solidarity with Haiti during this period of turbulence._

Jean Noël BARROT consequently announced that President Emmanuel Macron will speak at the Elysée Palace on the occasion of the bicentennial of Haiti's independence debt.

Indeed, in his speech before the Senate, Jean-Noël BARROT declared that France cannot remain indifferent to the overwhelming situation prevailing in Haiti. «The President of the Republic indicated that our common past should not be forgotten and that it was France's responsibility to keep the memory of slavery alive throughout the national territory as well as in Haiti», added Barrot.

*Initiatives without specifying their nature*

Initiatives will be announced on April 17 by the French president, the French Minister for Europe stated. «Emmanuel Macron will announce initiatives to mark the bicentennial of the granting of independence to Haiti from France, which was then conditioned on the payment of a heavy indemnity that had hindered the development of the world's first free black republic», the French official declared on Thursday.

This debt had terrible and lasting consequences for Haiti's economic development. Until 1952, Haitians continued to pay interest on it.

Haiti had to contract high-interest loans from French banks to pay off this debt, which took several decades, and which, according to historian Michel Soukar, would partly explain the country's difficulties in overcoming underdevelopment.