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The announcement of the procedure initiated by the Action-Équilibre group came as a surprise to almost everyone. On the morning of Monday March 3, the Collectivité's second vice-president, Bettina Cointre, hand-delivered to the director general of services a document signed by the group's eight territorial councillors: Marie-Hélène Bernier, Bettina Cointre, David Blanchard, Maxime Desouches, Dimitri Lédée, Jonas Brin, Pascale Minarro Baudoin and Cécile Rubino Tessier. This is a motion of no-confidence, the purpose of which is to call for a vote to oust Xavier Lédée from his position as Chairman. This, in favor of the first vice-president and leader of Action-Équilibre, Marie-Hélène Bernier.
“Every elected official must assume his or her responsibilities
In a press release posted online, the group explains the meaning of its action. “The last territorial council meeting highlighted, once again, Xavier Lédée's inaction and unwillingness to work with all elected representatives. What's more, in view of Xavier Lédée's statements to members of parliament, which are likely to call into question the status of our local authority, we could not remain idle. As the only legitimate group in a position to do so, we are assuming our responsibilities and have therefore decided to table this Motion. This move is part of our determination to break the deadlock and bring our future projects to a successful conclusion. The group justifies its choice of Marie-Hélène Bernier by writing: “Hélène Bernier is well known for her energy and determination, and has a motivated and competent team around her. Unlike Xavier Lédée, she will be calling on all willing elected representatives, in an attempt to make up for all the backlog accumulated over the past three years.”
For the elected members of Action-Équilibre, this move, undertaken without prior consultation with the opposition group comprising the six elected members of Saint-Barth d'Abord (Romaric Magras, Micheline Jacques, Alexandra Questel, Francius Matignon, Rudi Laplace and Sandra Baptiste), stems from a desire to force all the territorial councillors to adopt a clear position. Each elected representative will have to assume his or her responsibilities at the forthcoming meeting, where a minimum of 10 votes will be required,” they write. If this Motion does not receive the necessary number of votes, Xavier Lédée will remain in place, with all the risks that this entails for the island, and will continue to give a deplorable image of our community. The elected representatives will therefore vote according to their conscience and decide whether they wish to provide the Collectivité with the stability it needs.”
A “non-exhaustive” list of grievances
The no-confidence motion tabled by the Action-Équilibre group sets out a “non-exhaustive” list of ten reasons why this action was taken. They cite the President's alleged inability to “animate the work of his majority” and, on the contrary, the fact that he has been “an obstacle to the progress of issues”. They also point out that “the President tried to exploit a simple conflict of interest to his own advantage by trying to eliminate his first vice-president and refusing to provide her with the functional protection to which she was entitled”. They also accuse Xavier Lédée of “taking the place of elected representatives in charge of sectors” and of “withholding information”, of not having given in to the group's demands for the departure of his chief of staff, and of having “maintained in the Collectivité's workforce an agent without a position assignment in the organization chart”. The arguments put forward by the elected members of Action-Équilibre included “indecision”, which “blocked” or “delayed” the progress of certain dossiers, failure in his mission “in terms of housing and control of territorial development”, loss of the confidence of elected representatives “through his actions and shortcomings”, and the loss of his majority within the council. However, the straw that seems to have broken the camel's back is the content of Xavier Lédée's remarks at a hearing held by two MPs tasked with drafting a report on the institutional future of overseas France. The famous “review clause” mentioned in previous editions of JSB.
In concluding the document, the Action-Équilibre group states that “the elected members of the territorial council will be invited to consider this motion of no-confidence at a meeting to be held no later than 6 p.m. on Friday March 7”. However, as JSB wrapped up this edition on Wednesday March 5, no meeting had been officially announced.
Xavier Lédée denounces “vague and misleading allegations
When contacted by JSB, both by telephone and e-mail, to comment on the motion of no-confidence tabled by the Action-Équilibre group, the President of the Collectivité did not deign to reply to the Journal. However, Xavier Lédée did make a five-minute speech on the page of a so-called “social” network on which, since the beginning of the year, he has published a weekly summary of his activities. On Wednesday March 5, he chose to occupy this space with a video and written transcript of his remarks.
During this intervention, Xavier Lédée responded to the Action-Équilibre group, telling residents that he wished to “reassure” and “inform” them. He states that “for over a year”, the Action-Équilibre group has been trying to “convince” the population that “the Collectivité is at a standstill and that nothing is moving forward”. He continues: “Worse still, it would have you believe that I am leading, alone with the representative assemblies of the State, approaches that would have the effect of causing the Collectivité to lose the autonomy it has fought for.” On this point, it should be noted that the Saint-Barth d'Abord group, the honorary president of the Collectivité Bruno Magras and former senator Michel Magras have also denounced the proposal to introduce a “review clause” for Saint-Barthélemy contained in a redacted report.
Asked by the JSB, both by telephone and e-mail, to comment on the motion of no-confidence tabled by the Action-Équilibre group, the President of the Collectivité did not deign to reply to the Journal. However, Xavier Lédée did make a five-minute speech on the page of a so-called “social” network on which, since the beginning of the year, he has published a weekly summary of his activities. On Wednesday March 5, he chose to occupy this space with a video and written transcript of his remarks.
During this speech, Xavier Lédée responded to the Action-Équilibre group, telling residents that he wished to “reassure” and “inform” them. He states that “for over a year”, the Action-Équilibre group has been trying to “convince” the population that “the Collectivité is at a standstill and that nothing is moving forward”. He continues: “Worse still, it would have you believe that I am leading, alone with the representative assemblies of the State, approaches that would have the effect of causing the Collectivité to lose the autonomy it has fought for.” On this point, it should be noted that the Saint-Barth d'Abord group, the honorary president of the Collectivité Bruno Magras and former senator Michel Magras have also taken up the cause to denounce the proposal to introduce a “review clause” for Saint-Barthélemy contained in a report written by two deputies on the institutional future of overseas France. This was after a hearing with President Lédée. However, President Lédée asserts: “At no time did I ever propose a revision of our tax status. On the contrary, I defend it every day and will continue to do so. On the contrary, the comments I made in the National Assembly are the same as those I made before the Senate in the presence of Micheline Jacques in October 2022 and before the elected representatives of Guadeloupe in the company of honorary president Bruno Magras in May 2024.”
“A real slander”
In his speech, the President asserted: “To speak of immobilism when the Collectivité is currently managing more than 200 projects that directly meet the needs of the island and its inhabitants, to claim a desire on my part to manage everything alone when with three committee presidents from the different groups (Bettina Cointre for cultural affairs, David Blanchard for sporting affairs and Francius Matignon from the Saint-Barth d'Abord group for school affairs) projects are carried out in perfect consultation, is a real defamation. The vague and misleading allegations are an attempt to discredit me at a time when our actions are beginning to bear fruit.
Attacked head-on, Xavier Lédée takes refuge behind the Collectivité's services, which he considers to be “under pressure” because of the Action-Équilibre group's approach, and asserts that the latter “tends to undermine the respect of agents and call into question their involvement”.
Further on, President Lédée declares that the motion of no-confidence comes as no surprise. “It is the result of conflicts, animated and fanned by certain elected officials, of which you are all aware, to the detriment of the island's real interests”, he says.
“Projects are being finalized or launched”.
He also refers to “unworthy, disrespectful, ill-intentioned and potentially criminally reprehensible actions by certain elected officials”. This is without specifying the content of these “criminally reprehensible actions”, for which he makes no mention of any ongoing proceedings. Xavier Lédée is also careful not to name the elected representatives to whom he refers.
In conclusion, the President of the Collectivité lists a series of projects that have been completed or are underway, and then declares: “This list, although not exhaustive, clearly demonstrates that the Collectivité is by no means at a standstill. Projects are being finalized or launched. Others should follow, such as the schools (a project launched under the previous mandate and which the majority elected in March 2022 abandoned at the start of the mandate before relaunching it at the end of 2024, editor's note) or the hospital (a project led by first vice-president Marie-Hélène Bernier, editor's note), but for that we need to focus on the budget, without which nothing will be possible, and whose vote is scheduled for March 27.” Originally scheduled for March 20, the territorial council meeting devoted to voting on the 2025 budget has been postponed to Thursday March 27. It remains to be seen whether this budget will be voted under the presidency of Xavier Lédée or Marie-Hélène Bernier.
The Territorial Council will meet on Monday, March 17 at 8:30 a.m. to examine and then vote on the motion of no confidence.
