Minister of France, Édouard Balladur, made an official visit to Terre-de-Haut. In May 2001, les Saintes joined the Club of the Most Beautiful Bays of the World. 2004 earthquake On 21 November 2004, the islands of les Saintes were struck by an earthquake of magnitude 6.3. It was an intraplate earthquake situated on a system of normal faults going from les Saintes to the north of Dominica. These faults are globally directed 135° (north-west to south-east), with dip north-east (Roseau fault, Ilet fault, Colibri fault, Marigot Fault) or south-west (Souffleur fault, Rodrigues fault, Redonda fault). These faults bound zones of rifts corresponding to an extension located on Roseau volcano (an inactive submarine volcano). The epicentre was offshore, located between the island of Dominica and les Saintes archipelago, at approximately 15°47'N 61°28'W, on Souffleur fault. The depth of the focus is located on the earth's crust, and is superficial, about . The concussions of the main shock and the numerous aftershocks were powerful, reaching an intensity of VIII (important structural damage) on the MSK scale. Damage to the most vulnerable properties in les Saintes, in Trois-Rivières (Guadeloupe) and in the North of Dominica was considerable. In Trois-Rivières, a collapsed wall killed a sleeping girl and seriously hurt her sister. In les Saintes, even though no-one was killed or badly wounded, many were traumatised by the strong and numerous aftershocks. Political and institutional evolution On 7 December 2003, the islands of les Saintes, integrated into the department of Guadeloupe, participated in a referendum on the institutional evolution of that French Overseas Department and rejected it by a majority of "No". During the 2009 French Caribbean general strikes, les Saintes did not get involved in the movement and were only moderately affected: the supply of stores was very perturbed like other places in Guadeloupe, but these strikes mostly concerned small and medium enterprises (SMEs) (weakly presented on these islands). The maritime transport companies tried hard to find some Gasoil to assure most of the connections, and the Guadeloupean tourism was partially transferred to les Saintes. Nicolas Sarkozy declared, at the end of the conflict, the opening of États-Généraux de l'Outre-mer ("Estates-general of the Overseas"). Several study groups were created, one of which looked into the local governance, brought to conceive an institutional modification project or a new status of Guadeloupe with or without emancipation of its last dependencies. The conferences of the "southern