Guyanese lawyer advocates replacing 'metropole' with 'Hexagone'
In a tribune published in Le Monde on October 5, 2025, Guyanese lawyer Patrick Lingibé criticizes the use of 'metropole' to refer to mainland France, viewing it as a postcolonial remnant. He suggests replacing it with 'Hexagone', a neutral geographic term already used in some official texts. This symbolic change would affirm the equality of all French territories.
Patrick Lingibé, an ultramarine jurist, argues that the word 'metropole' perpetuates a hierarchical view of France, relegating overseas territories to the periphery. 'As an ultramarine jurist, I have seen words hurt as much as laws. "Metropole" is one of them,' he writes. Defined by Le Petit Robert as 'the territory of a State in relation to its colonies,' it sounds like an anachronism in 2025 and prolongs a postcolonial logic of a dominant center and marginal territories.
Despite the Constitution proclaiming an 'one and indivisible' Republic, the use of 'metropole' in official texts contradicts this ideal. Lingibé cites tangible consequences: according to the Observatoire des inégalités in 2023, 32% of ultramarins report having suffered discrimination, rising to 33% for those residing in 'metropole.' A 2019 survey by the Défenseur des droits reveals that 40% of ultramarins feel treated unfavorably in access to public services or employment, with examples like school enrollment refusals or systematic administrative difficulties.
To show France is lagging, Lingibé compares with other countries. The United Kingdom abandoned 'colony' for 'British overseas territory' in 2002. Spain integrates the Canaries and Balearics as full 'autonomous communities.' The Netherlands reorganized in 2010, making Aruba and Curaçao 'autonomous countries' and Bonaire a special municipality.
Lingibé notes that 'Hexagone,' a simple geographic description, is already adopted by the Assemblée nationale in the military programming law. He calls for this replacement to affirm the equality of all territories.