A Constitutional Reform Bill dedicated to New Caledonia was rejected on Thursday by the French National Assembly (Lower House) without debate, by a gathering of opposition parties by a score of 190 to 107.

The rejection came in the form of the endorsement of a preliminary Bill filed by a left wing opposition, Emmanuel Tjibaou, on behalf of the GDR group (Gauche démocrate et républicaine).

The “prior rejection motion” means that if the rejection motion is adopted, then it closes the current sitting on the matter and the Bill would then have to come back to the other House of Parliament, the Senate, following the “shuttle” rule.

• READ MORE: Thousands take to Nouméa streets ahead of French Parliament debate on New Caledonia
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

Tjibaou, who is an indigenous Kanak pro-independence leader, is one of the two MPs representing New Caledonia in the Assembly.

The text was originally tabled for a vote to be held on 1 April 2026, but this was later delayed by one day, following an announcement by Speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet.

However, on Thursday, during a sitting that only debated motives from the government and its Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou, the rapporteur Philippe Gosselin and representatives from all parties present, it quickly became clear that most of the opposition parties were going to support the rejection motion, and vote against the text without further debate.

The sitting only lasted 01 hour 40 minutes.

Tjibaou, speaking in support of his rejection motion, stressed that the Constitutional Bill, in his view, was “not consensual”, because his party, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) was opposed to the text and that the Bill “did not seek to reach a compromise” between all stakeholders.

Tjibaou said this was in contradiction to the previous Matignon-Oudinot (1988) and Nouméa Accord (1998), which initiated a decolonisation process for New Caledonia.

The present Constitutional Bill derives from talks held in July 2025 and January 2026 between New Caledonia political stakeholders and the French government. This was on two occasions — in the small city of Bougival in July 2025 and later in January 2026 in Paris, at the French Presidential palace of Élysée, and the French ministry of Overseas territories in Rue Oudinot.

Hence the name of Bougival-Élysée-Oudinot (BEO) for a text and an expanded project.

The project also envisions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, with a correlated “New Caledonia Nationality” available to people who are already French citizens.

Other participating parties pro-France and pro-independence (two pro-independence members of FLNKS) have since split to create their own “UNI” (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance).

They have maintained their commitment to the BEO process, including their legislative adaptation (in the form of a Constitutional Amendment and an “organic Law”, which would de facto become New Caledonia’s constitution).

Tjibaou: ‘a logic of assimilation’
But the BEO text, in August 2025, was unequivocally opposed by the FLNKS, one of the main components of the pro-independence movement.

The FLNKS later explained it saw these, as well as a planned process of transfer of more powers from Paris to Nouméa, was, in their view, just a “lure” of independence.

Tjibaou said on Thursday the text was at best “symbolic”.

“To us, this amounts to a perennial status within France… It’s a logic of assimilation… It cannot be compared to a decolonisation in accordance with the UN resolutions and the international law”, he told MPs.

He called on local elections to be held sooner than later, currently no later than 28 June 2026.

Tjibaou said it was ironic that “a pro-independence” should tell the Minister that “when our Kanak country is damaged, it is also France that is damaged”… Because “when you make decisions that are leading us to chaos, you are also jeopardising France’s place in the Pacific”, he said at the tribune.

Moutchou: ‘There is no other agreement’
Moutchou, in her reply, said the rejection of the Bill would have repercussions on New Caledonians’ everyday life.

She stressed what New Caledonians needed, after the riots of May 2024 and a severe economic downfall since, was “visibility”, especially on the part of economic stakeholders who needed stability in order to restore confidence and investment.

“There is no other agreement. The Bougival process was approved by 5 of the 6 political parties of New Caledonia.

“Some are mentioning the absence of FLNKS. I’ve always maintained the principles of transparency, dialogue information for all. And the door was never closed”, she said.

“And the politics of the empty chair cannot dictate the future of a territory.

“So what do we do? How much longer do we have to wait… To be responsible, we move on with those who are here… Consensus does not mean unanimity, consensus is not perfection, it’s a point of equilibrium”, she replied to Tjibaou.

“And while we have this text that is not perfect, but opens a way, those who say, ‘we will wait and see later’ risk bringing us back to a confrontational situation”.

Metzdorf’s disappointment
The other MP for New Caledonia, pro-France Nicolas Metzdorf, also took to the tribune to express disappointment.

“I don’t know what more we should do. After the 2024 riots, you asked us to find a political agreement. We did this and we made big concessions, we, the non-independentists. We did this for the good of New Caledonia.

“Then you said we had to meet again to further clarify… On Kanak identity and the self-determination process. So now we are back with two political agreements.”

“And now you are sending us back home without a debate… You know, New Caledonia may be far from Paris, but tonight, many are watching this debate on TV and they’re thinking ‘What will happen to us?”

“Many have lost their home, their work, but even worse, they have lost hope to live in peace in New Caledonia”.

“What I am asking (MPs) today is just to have the common decency to debate on this (Bill)… These agreements are being supported by the majority of New Caledonia’s political class (including the moderate pro-independence parties within the Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance), but also by the economic and business sector.”

“I’m asking for a vote on these accords and I’m asking to organise a consultation of New Caledonia’s people, because at the end of the day, we are the only legitimate ones to decide on our future.”

What now?
Following the rejection vote on Thursday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said all parties that had signed the Bougival-Elysée-Oudinot Accord would meet “next week”, because this is what was agreed in case of a deadlock.

Commenting on future options, Metzdorf told French media in Paris that “all options are now on the table”.

After the National Assembly’s rejection, another possibility was to bring the text back to the Upper House (the Senate).

Another option (that was almost implemented a few months ago, but later abandoned) would be to bring back a process of “consultation” directly in New Caledonia in the form of a de facto referendum for or against the Bougival process.

But the sensitive issue of who is eligible to vote at local elections remains for the looming provincial elections (which would now have to be held no later than 28 June 2026).

Pro-France parties are still determined to have those restrictions changed to allow the “frozen” electoral roll to be more open, if not fully “unfrozen”.

This could be the subject of separate negotiations between New Caledonia’s opposing parties in the coming days.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Thousands took to the streets of the capital Nouméa on Tuesday — hours ahead of a scheduled French Parliament debate in the National Assembly in Paris to discuss the French Pacific territory’s political future.

An estimated 2500 came in support of local Association Un Coeur, une Voix (UCUV–One Heart, One Voice) to oppose the prospect of the next local elections (to elect New Caledonia’s three provinces) being held under the current “frozen” electoral roll, which excludes people who have not resided in New Caledonia before 1998 or their direct descendents.

During a one-hour peaceful march in downtown Nouméa, the participants were brandishing tricolour blue-white-red flags and other placards denouncing what they described as “second-class citizens” treatment and their perceived condition of self-styled “victims of history”.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

The march was designed to send a clear message to French MPs ahead of debates on New Caledonia later this week.

“I’m sorry for using harsh words, but it’s like we’re being robbed [of our rights],” UCUV president Raphaël Romano told local Radio Rythme Bleu.

“And now we have those MPs who are going to decide for us. They’re going to use New Caledonia for their own national political gains . . .  and make a mess”.

“If [MPs] can’t find an agreement, then they should let New Caledonians choose.

“It’s a shame for democracy, it happens nowhere else in the world”, Romano told local media.

His movement is strongly supported by several prominent pro-France parties, including Le Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes.

He said the situation affected all ethnic communities in New Caledonia.

“Those who can’t vote are men and women from all walks of life, all ethnic groups who live together in peace, every day,” he said.

“It’s hard enough to try and recover from the May 2024 riots, where people have lost their businesses and their job.”

The 2024 riots caused 14 deaths and more than 2 billion euros (almost NZ$4 billion) in material damage.

They were also initially triggered by peaceful protests against a plan to have the French constitution modified, especially regarding the electoral restrictions.

The protests turned violent and out of control in Nouméa on the very day debates started in Paris.

The “freeze” was enforced in 2009, as part of the Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998.

Originally designed as a temporary measure, the restriction currently excludes up to 40,000 people, many of them born in New Caledonia.

‘Counter demonstrations’
Meanwhile, pro-independence movements have called for other “counter-demonstrations” outside of Nouméa.

One gathering took place on Tuesday, including in the outer Loyalty Islands of Lifou, while another demonstration is scheduled on Wednesday, in Koné (North of the main island, Grande Terre).

The voting restriction measure was originally included in the 1998 Nouméa Accord as a measure to prevent any erosion of New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak population’s voice.

The proposed text derives from talks held between New Caledonia political stakeholders and the French government.

This was on two occasions: in the small city of Bougival in July 2025 and later in January 2026 in Paris, at the French Presidential Élysée Palace and the French Ministry of Overseas Territories, Rue Oudinot.

Hence the name of Bougival-Élysée-Oudinot (BEO) for a text and an expanded project.

But the BEO text, in August 2025, was unequivocally opposed by the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), the main component of the pro-independence movement.

Other participating parties — pro-France and pro-independence (two pro-independence members of FLNKS have since split to create their own “UNI” [Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance]) — have since maintained their commitment to the BEO process, including their legislative adaptation (in the form of a Constitutional Amendment and an “organic Law, which would de facto become New Caledonia’s constitution).

The project also envisions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, with a correlated “New Caledonia nationality” available to people who are already French citizens.

The FLNKS later explained it saw these, as well as a planned process of transfer of more powers from Paris to Nouméa, as just a “lure” of independence.

Reacting to the UCUV march, FLNKS said the “freeze” was ruled constitutional by France’s Constitutional Council in September 2025 and could only be changed if a “consensual” agreement was found.

But FLNKS considers the BEO-derived text “is not a logical continuation of the Nouméa Accord”.

The BEO-derived Bill, if adopted, could eventually replace the Nouméa Accord.

But it is now still undergoing legislative process.

The French Senate endorsed it on February 24, with a comfortable right-wing majority.

But this week, the same text is to be debated in the Lower House of Parliament, the National Assembly, which has been divided since the July 2024 French national snap election following President Macron’s decision to dissolve Parliament.

Current predictions are that since there is no clear majority within the Lower House, the Bill, which comes in the form of a Constitutional Amendment (with the capacity to replace the Nouméa Accord) is likely to be rejected.

The opposition to the current right-wing group comes from the left (far-left La France Insoumise -LFI-, the Socialists (who say the Bill is “heavy with threats and dangers”), the Communists, the Greens) and Marine Le Pen’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN).

Last week, the Constitutional Bill came before the National Assembly’s Law Committee and suffered an initial rejection.

Parliamentary debates in the National Assembly are scheduled to begin on Wednesday (1 April 2026, Paris time) and could last for the next three days.

‘Barrage’ of three thousand amendments
Some opposition parties, especially the democratic and republican left (GDR, Gauche démocrate et républicaine, to which the pro-independence New Caledonian Kanak MP Emmanuel Tjibaou belongs) have already filed on the agenda a “prior rejection motion” to withdraw the Bill.

Some of those expressed strong reservations because the process and ensuing Bill was opposed by FLNKS and that, therefore, there was no unanimity.

Meanwhile, since last week, in a previously used barrage tactic, LFI has also filed over 3000 amendments.

Restrictions still apply under Nouméa Accord — French Constitutional Council
UCUV has been fighting for years to defend their rights, in front of what they term a “denial of democracy”.

Last year, they took their case to the French Constitutional Council, which ruled that in the present situation, the electoral roll “freeze” for local elections was part of the Nouméa Accord which was part of the French Constitution.

UCUV president Raphaël Romano said they now have no other option but to take their case before the European Court of Human Rights, even though they admit their hopes are “very weak”.

He said the deadline was 4 April 2026.

If the Constitutional Bill is rejected by Parliament, a new proposed calendar for implementation will automatically become obsolete.

And local provincial elections that have already been delayed three times since May 2024 will have to be held not later than 28 June 2026, instead of the proposed December this year.

If the BEO-derived text is rejected, then the Nouméa Accord applies again and the planned provincial elections will have to be held under the restricted — “frozen” — electoral roll system.

“The provincial elections will not be held under a frozen electoral roll. It’s just not possible”, Romano said.

Deadlock, imbroglio: what now?
Other possible alternative scenarios could include re-submitting a new, revised Bill, dedicated to the electoral roll, or organising a “consultation”, a de facto referendum with eligible New Caledonians.

Under the French parliamentary principle of the “shuttle”, the text could be sent back to the Senate.

Under the BEO text, people eligible for voting at local provincial elections can either be born in New Caledonia or having resided there for an uninterrupted 15 years (for the first five years of enforcement, then the minimum residence period would be reduced to 10 uninterrupted years).

From the French government’s point of view, an agreement on New Caledonia’s institutional future is the only solution to bring back stability and economic “visibility” for local and foreign investors.

“Everything is on the table to get things moving”, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu told French media last week.

Overseas Minister Naïma Moutchou is still advocating for the benefits a parliamentary approval would bring to New Caledonia in terms of a “framework” for economic recovery.

France has earmarked some 2 billion euros in a “refoundation” pact, structured to put the economy, social services and the crucial nickel mining industry back on track, provided necessary reforms are carried out.

“Let’s give a chance to this process, because in New Caledonia, the alternative to an open political process is never quiet: it’s uncertainty and, over there, it always ends up weakening civil peace,” she told Parliament last week.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The signing of a new agreement on New Caledonia’s political and financial future has triggered a fresh wave of reactions from across the French territory’s political chessboard.

The Elysée-Oudinot agreement was signed on Monday, January 19, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron as well as most of New Caledonia’s politicians.

But the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), the largest component of the pro-independence movement, had chosen not to travel to Paris.

• READ MORE: New Caledonia’s new Elysée-Oudinot pact signed in Paris – despite boycott
• Pro-France MPs confront Macron over New Caledonia at future talks
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

The new deal, signed by parties represented at New Caledonia’s Congress (its local parliament), including members of the moderate pro-independence PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), who have split from FLNKS, all signed the agreement.

PALIKA and UPM are formed into a Parliamentary caucus called “UNI” (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance).

The Elysée-Oudinot text was described as being a “complement” bearing “clarifications” to a previous agreement project, signed in July 2025 in the small city of Bougival, west of Paris.

The FLNKS, even though it initially signed the Bougival text, rejected it in bloc a few days after returning to New Caledonia.

As French President Macron called all politicians back to the table to refine the July 2025 talks, FLNKS announced it would not travel to Paris, saying the project which would serve as the basis for further talks did not meet their short-term goals of full sovereignty.

They said the Bougival text and all related documents were in substance “lures” of independence and that they regarded the French state as being responsible for a “rupture of dialogue”.

As the Bougival initial text, its Elysée-Oudinot complement maintains the notion of creating a “state of New Caledonia”, its correlated “nationality” and introduces a new set of commitments from France, including a package to re-launch the local economy, severely damaged as a result of the riots that broke out in May 2024.

The new text also mentions granting more powers to each of New Caledonia’s three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty Islands group), including in terms of revenue collection by way of taxes.

This, the FLNKS protested, could erode the powers of New Caledonian provinces and reinforce economic and social inequalities between them.

Reacting to the signing in Paris in their absence, the FLNKS, in a media release on Wednesday, condemned and rejected the new text “unequivocally”.

FLNKS President Christian Téin, in the release, said the new agreement endorses a “passage en force” (forceful passage) and is “incompatible” with the way the FLNKS envisages Kanaky’s “decolonisation path”, including in the way it is defined under the United Nations decolonisation process.

It also criticises a document signed “without the Indigenous people” of New Caledonia.

The pro-independence party also expressed its disapproval of what it calls a “pseudo-accord”.

“We will use every political tool available to us to re-alert, again and again the public”, FLNKS politburo member Gilbert Tyuienon told public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première at the weekend.

French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou had reiterated, even after the signing in Paris, that the door remained open to FLNKS.

In reaction to the signing, other parties have also expressed their respective points of view.

“Why didn’t they come [to Paris] to defend their positions, since they were invited?” Southern Province President (pro-France) Sonia Backès wrote on social networks.

“Does UNI not represent the Kanak people too?” she added.

French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou said this new set of agreements reflected a “shared will to look at the future together”.

“Now the territory can walk on its two legs”.

Some of the pro-France parties, who want New Caledonia to remain a part of France, have however acknowledged that even though the new documents were signed, the road ahead remained rocky in terms of its implementation in the French Parliament, through a local referendum and related constitutional amendments.

‘We’ve done the easiest part’ — Metzdorf
New Caledonia’s MP at the French National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf said a huge challenge still remained ahead.

“We’ve done the easiest, the hardest part remains . . .  This is to obtain the [French] Parliament’s support, both Houses, to enact the accords in the French Constitution.”

Following a very tight schedule in the coming weeks, the texts will be submitted to the vote of both Parliament Houses, first separately, then in a joint chamber format (the Congress, for constitutional amendment purposes).

Then the text is also to be submitted to New Caledonia’s population for approval through a referendum-like “consultation”.

In a way of foretaste of what promises to be heated debates in coming weeks, with a backdrop of strong divisions in the French Parliament, Moutchou and far-left MP Bastien Lachaud (La France Insoumise, LFI) waged a war of words on Tuesday in the National Assembly.

Responding to Lachaud’s accusations which echoed those from FLNKS, Moutchou denounced the “passage en force” claim and the absence of “consensus”.

“FLNKS was never excluded from anything. It was invited, it was approached, it was awaited, just like the other ones. It chose not to turn up,” Moutchou said.

“The politics of empty chair was never conducive to a compromise,” she said as Assembly Speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet had to call the LFI caucus back to order.

Strong financial component
Some of the financial aspects of the deals include a five-year “reconstruction” plan for New Caledonia, for a total of 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion), presented to New Caledonia’s politicians by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.

This chapter also comes with revisiting previous French loans for more than 1 billion euros, which New Caledonia found almost impossible to repay (with an indebtedness rate of 360 percent).

The loans, under the agreement’s financial chapter, would be renegotiated, re-scheduled and possibly converted into non-refundable grants.

Meanwhile a two-year repayment holiday (2026-2027) would be applied, while a far-reaching reform programme is expected to be pursued.

“What people really expected was [economic] prospects. This is the main part of this accord, the economic refoundation,” commented Vaimu’a Muliava, from Wallis-based Eveil Océanien party after the Paris talks.

The new financial arrangements would also provide a much-needed lifebuoy to critically threatened mechanisms in New Caledonia, such as its retirement scheme or the power supply company.

More injections for the nickel industry
Another 200 million euros is also earmarked to bail out several nickel mining companies facing critical hardships.

This includes assistance aimed at supporting business and employment for French historical Société le Nickel (SLN), Prony Resources and NMC (Nickel Mining Company, which has ties to Korea’s POSCO).

The French government has also pledged to follow-up on a request to New Caledonia’s nickel mining and refining declared a “strategic” sector by the European Union.

“The agreement’s economic chapter was as necessary as the political one,” said New Caledonia’s President Alcide Ponga after the signing.

Another cash injection was directed to this year’s budget for New Caledonia, which benefits from a direct cash injection of 58 million euros.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s politicians and French President Emmanuel Macron have signed a new political and financial agreement over the French Pacific territory.

The Elysée-Oudinot Accord was signed by most of New Caledonia’s political leaders represented at New Caledonia’s local Parliament, the Congress.

But one of the main pro-independence movements, the FLNKS, has boycotted the talks, and a later request to attend remotely was declined.

• READ MORE: Pro-France MPs confront Macron over New Caledonia at future talks
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

The agreement, now renamed “Elysée-Oudinot” (Oudinot being the name of the street where the French Minister for Overseas is located in Paris), was signed last evening.

The signing followed four days of tense negotiations behind closed doors at the French Ministry for Overseas, which lasted until late at night on Saturday and Sunday.

It is mainly based on a former deal signed in July 2025, in the small city of Bougival (west of Paris).

It aims at bringing clarifications and additions to the earlier text, which was also rejected in block by the pro-independence FLNKS party.

The signing concludes “three days of in-depth discussions” in a “spirit of demanding and respectful dialogue” which “allowed for a shared path for the evolution of New Caledonia’s institutions to emerge”, a statement from the French President’s Office, the Élysée, said.

Speaking during a brief signing ceremony, Macron expressed his “congratulations” and “gratitude” to the participants for their sense of “compromise” and “responsibility”.

He also hailed their “courage”, despite the “unacceptable threats several of you have been subjected to”.

Referring to threatening messages posted on social networks in recent days, he said the targeted politicians “have the support of the Republic” and people who have posted such threats “will be prosecuted”.

New Caledonia’s institutional future developments
Other notable additions to the text are related to New Caledonia’s institutional future developments.

Some of these were related to the indigenous Kanak people’s identity, and a reaffirmation of what was already written and enshrined in the 1998 Nouméa Accord preamble.

The new text goes further in introducing the notion of a “Caledonian identity”, which is supposed to “allow all [New] Caledonians to form a “people”.

Another paragraph pledges to work on New Caledonia’s attractiveness for the purpose of its “economic development” and to give relevant powers to its three provinces to achieve this goal.

Another new notion is de facto enhancing the capacity of the three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty Islands group) to raise their own taxes.

Other subjects discussed included the notion of self-determination, key powers (such as defence, security, external relations, justice and currency) and how they should be exerted in future.

This would come with the associated training of local elites in the diplomatic, military, law enforcement, judiciary and financial elites.

Economic relief
Other parts, also signed earlier on Monday in the form of a “summary of conclusions”, were related to New Caledonia’s dire financial situation and the way France intended to assist in future through a “refoundation” pact to the tune of 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion) over the next five years.

However, New Caledonia’s institutions would still have to pursue their own efforts, which have already started, in terms of economic reforms and cost-cutting.

New Caledonia’s economy has been left in a dire situation, following the riots which broke out in May 2024.

As part of the new text, a significant commitment is pledged by France to convert earlier heavy loans into grants.

This mainly concerns those loans contracted due to the covid-19 crisis and the May 2024 riots (more than 1 billion euros).

Very tight schedule in coming months
The new agreement still has to go through the French Parliament and a referendum vote in New Caledonia.

If the text receives sufficient support from the French Parliament, it also entails that crucial provincial elections (already postponed three times since 2024), would now be once again rescheduled to the last quarter of 2026.

Those elections, which are the foundation of the whole political system in New Caledonia, were initially supposed to take place in May 2024.

Also in terms of schedule, the new text envisages that it would be gazetted this month, then put to the vote of both houses of the French Parliament — the Senate in February 2026, and then the National Assembly (March-April 2026), followed by both Houses in a “Congress” format for Constitutional amendments.

In June-July 2026, a de facto referendum would submit the text to the vote in New Caledonia with eligible voters. If a majority approves, this would open the door to Constitutional amendments coming into force.

Other related amendments and additions include the implementation of an “organic law” and a “fundamental law” (a de facto Constitution) for New Caledonia.

The initial text signed in Bougival also mentions the notion of a “State of New Caledonia” with its associated “nationality”, albeit conditioned to the prior possession of the French citizenship.

Also on Monday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced that, faced with a hung Parliament with no clear majority, he had now resolved to resort (although he had initially pledged not to) to engaging the responsibility of his government (pursuant to Article 49.3 of the Constitution) to have France’s Appropriation Bill  — the budget — finally endorsed and to pass.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Talks on New Caledonia’s political future have been underway in Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron launched a fresh roundtable on Friday, despite the absence of one of the French territory’s largest pro-independence group, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

During a first meeting with New Caledonia’s political stakeholders, Macron “regretted one of the political partners did not wish to respond to our invitation”.

But he said more talks were needed to “reach an agreement to get out of an already too long uncertainty”.

• READ MORE: FLNKS sends in late request to join Paris talks on New Caledonia remotely
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

“Today, the State wishes to continue to advance on stabilising New Caledonia’s institutions, as part of a dialogue respectful of everyone, without any forceful passage, but without any paralysis either,” the French President said.

New Caledonia’s Congress (Parliament) Speaker Veylma Falaeo (Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien party) echoed Macron’s remarks, saying she too regretted the absence of the FLNKS absence “but it’s now time to move forward”.

Eveil Océanien leader Milakulo Tukumuli suggested politicians should agree on a “new period of stability of 15 to 20 years to rebuild and reform [New Caledonia], after which a new referendum could be held on a new common project or even an associated state”.

“[Macron] has now considered that one could not eternally wait for people who are not here around the table and that therefore we had to move forward because, and we told him once again, either we move forward or New Caledonia is sinking,” Pro-France Virginie Ruffenach (Rassemblement-LR) told French media.

The FLNKS, which last week decided not to travel to Paris for the talks, had however formulated a late request to join in remotely.

The request was declined.

Hardline pro-France politicians confront Macron
During the same opening session dedicated to each party’s statement, the most confrontational ones came from the two main pro-France MPs, who have also recently become increasingly critical of the French President.

“We have done our part. We have negotiated; we have made concessions; we have taken our responsibilities. Now it’s on you to do your part,” Les Loyalistes leader Sonia Backès told the gathering on Friday.

“Those who don’t want any agreement have already made us lose precious time.

“We are here because the [French] state did not engage sufficient forces on 13 May 2024.”

She was referring to the riots that killed 14, damaged or destroyed hundreds of businesses and the loss of thousands of jobs for a total of some 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion) in damages.

She said the text, even if it was to be modified, was about “choosing what kind of society we want . . .  Either it’s the rule of the strongest or it’s a victory for democracy,” she told Macron.

Another pro-France outspoken politician, New Caledonia’s MP in the National Assembly Nicolas Metzdorf, said: “Mr President, I don’t really know what we are doing here today. We never requested this meeting . . .  Because as far as we’re concerned, we did everything that had to be done. We have worked. We have negotiated. We have made concessions.

“Instead, you should have convened the [French] ministers and parliamentary groups who remain . . .  paralysed by fear.”

‘Basic principles of democracy’
Metzdorf went further in accusing France of being “unable to enforce the basic principles of democracy when it comes to one of its own territories”.

“As far as we’re concerned, we have reached the limits of what is acceptable. Now things are simple and perfectly clear: either we come out of this sequence [of discussions] with a precise text, a clear schedule and endorsement by Parliament or we will radically change our strategy and we’ll turn against our own state by using all means available to us.”

He was alluding to suing the French state in the European Human Rights Court of Justice, in reference to current restrictions to New Caledonia’s electoral roll at provincial elections, as prescribed under the previous 1998 Nouméa Accord.

This is the criteria that limits the number of eligible voters at provincial elections to those born or residing before 1998 and their descendents.

“Mr President, we have nothing left to lose . . .  Because we can see the Republic has no more promise left for us,” Metzdorf added.

However, he appeared to remain optimistic: “With [pro-independence] UNI, we’ll find a point of equilibrium in the next few days.”

Moderate pro-independence leader Jean-Pierre Djaïwé, who belongs to the UNI (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance, a gathering of PALIKA — Kanak Liberation Party — and UPM — Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), which broke away from the FLNKS and supported the Bougival text, said in Paris his aim was to “improve what can be improved”.

Financial backing needed
But other party leaders, like Philippe Dunoyer (from moderate pro-France Calédonie Ensemble), said any new agreement would remain meaningless without substantial French financial backing.

New Caledonia’s MP in the French Senate, Georges Naturel, made an outright call to Macron, asking him to be “lucid” and recognise that it is “impossible to implement” the 12 July 2026 agreement project within its original schedule.

Macron did not respond to the comments before departing the session.

After an initial sequence on Friday, marked by declarations by Macron and the main political parties in attendance, both pro-France and pro-independence, the session then split into workshops hosted by the French Ministry for Overseas, under the supervision of its Minister, Naïma Moutchou.

The talks are focusing on several aspects of the implementation of an earlier project agreement signed in July 2025.

The text, in its initial form, was mentioning the creation of a “State of New Caledonia” with its correlated “nationality” and a mechanism of gradual transfers of more powers from France to New Caledonia.

The specific themes discussed this month include the notions of the transfer of powers from France, self-determination, defence, security, external relations, the recognition of the indigenous Kanak identity and further financial assistance under a “refoundation pact” proposed by France for a total of 2.2 billion euros over a 5-year period.

Revised pact with ‘clarifications’
The final aim remains to arrive at a new document with “clarifications” to the initial Bougival pact signed in July 2025.

But the Bougival text has since faced several major obstacles in its implementation process.

This includes its outright rejection by the pro-independence FLNKS, while all other New Caledonian parties have decided to support the project at various levels.

FLNKS calls the July 2025 project a “lure of independence” because it does not address its demands for a short-term full sovereignty.

Another major obstacle was the division within the French Parliament, still faced with the absence of a clear majority, which has also delayed the endorsement of the French 2026 Appropriation Bill (budget).

Another objective of the talks is to have the revised project quickly endorsed by the French National Assembly (Lower House) in February and by the Senate (Upper House) mid-April and a final joint meeting of both House, under a “Congress” format to have the final document approved to modify the French Constitution.

If all those modifications eventuate, the next document would be renamed “Elyséee-Oudinot” and the original name of “Bougival” scrapped.

FLNKS reacts from Nouméa
Speaking on Sunday, FLNKS political bureau member and member of Union Calédonienne, Gilbert Tyuienon, denounced the Paris talks, saying this was not in line with the previous agreement signed under the name of “Nouméa Accord” in 1998, which paved the way for a decolonisation process for New Caledonia.

He said even if the Paris talks produced a new, revised document, it remained highly doubtful that it could be endorsed by French MPs “because President Macron doesn’t have a majority in Parliament”.

Another difficulty, he said, was that under the revised roadmap, New Caledonia’s provincial (local) elections could be postponed for the fourth time to sometime in September 2026.

But he pointed out that, when it gave its final green light to the former postponement to no later than 28 June 2026, the French Constitutional Council made it clear this should be the last time the crucial poll was rescheduled.

Back in Paris, talks were scheduled to continue on Monday and possibly conclude on another session supervised by Macron, should a new document emerge.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS)  has put in a late request to join talks on the territory’s future remotely.

The meeting, convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, is calling all politicians from the French Pacific territory back to the negotiating table.

The FLNKS said earlier this week it would not travel to Paris for the “make or break” roundtable.

• READ MORE:  FLNKS boycotts Macron-convened Paris talks over future this week
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

However, as the meeting approached, FLNKS officials advised that they had also made a last-minute proposal to the French President’s office that — instead of travelling to Paris — they could take part in the talks remotely by videoconference.

The offer was conveyed in a letter to the President, FLNKS official and Union Calédonienne secretary general Dominique Fochi confirmed to public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie la 1ère yesterday.

But even though Macron’s advisors acknowledged receipt of the FLNKS message, it is not known whether he would entertain the last-minute request.

“We treated FLNKS fairly, just like the other political groups”, one of Macron’s advisers said, adding that “even in the visible absence of FLNKS” they believe it is “still worth moving forward”.

More direct
During question time in Parliament on Wednesday, Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou’s words were more direct.

Referring to the FLNKS absence, she said: “We will not accept that, due to the absence of some, New Caledonians would be held hostage.

“Nobody has a right of veto on the territory of New Caledonia,” she told MPs in the National Assembly.

The meeting follows talks held in July 2025 that led to the signing of an agreement project since dubbed the Bougival Text.

The project agreement intended to pave the way for the creation of a “state of New Caledonia” within France and its correlated “New Caledonian nationality”, as well as the gradual transfer of more powers from France to its Pacific territory.

But just a few days later, on 9 August 2025, the FLNKS, the main component in New Caledonia’s pro-independence Kanak movement, denounced the Bougival text, saying it was a “lure” of independence.

More details from Macron’s entourage
On Wednesday, Macron’s entourage (including his closest advisers) also provided some information on the meeting’s format and the fact that they believed pursuing the talks was “still worth it”, “without a passage en force”, but “without paralysing (New Caledonia) either”, because “expectations from New Caledonia’s population are high”.

The initial roundtable at the French Presidential office, in the form of a plenary session was announced to take place on January 16 in the afternoon (Paris time), with officials in attendance including President Macron, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Speakers of both Houses of Parliament Gérard Larcher (Senate) and Yaël Braun-Pivet (National Assembly), as well as Minister for Overseas Moutchou.

New Caledonia’s politicians would then split into several workshops for the whole weekend, each focusing on a specific theme, including New Caledonia’s economic recovery, the indigenous Kanak people’s identity and recognition, the process of transferring powers from France to New Caledonia, and the notion of self-determination.

One of the workshops would also focus on an offer made in December 2025 by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu — a financial assistance recovery package of over 2 billion euros (NZ$4 bilion) over a period of five years.

The expected outcome would be a final document containing additions and amendments to the July 2025 text.

Scrap the name of ‘Bougival’
One notable feature would also be that the name “Bougival” should eventually disappear in the final version of the expected agreement, which it is hoped would be presented on Monday, January 19.

“What we sometimes observe in certain cases is that this agreement of July 12, known as the Bougival agreement, had become, by its very name, an obstacle to moving forward”, one president’s adviser admitted.

“We will see during the discussion that will begin on Friday whether it is appropriate to give a new name to the agreement of July 12 to better represent the feelings of all parties,” the Élysée concluded.

It was also expected, should the new text be allowed to progress, that a constitutional amendment would later be endorsed by the French Congress (which is made up of both Houses of Parliament, the National Assembly and the Senate).

A consultation of New Caledonia’s population by a de facto referendum on the framework blueprint would also be re-activated, presidential sources told French national media.

This referendum-like consultation was put on hold in December 2025, due to delays and an expected lack of parliamentary support.

The date of New Caledonia’s crucial provincial elections (currently scheduled for no later than 28 June 2026) could once again be postponed to September.

Those local elections were originally planned to take place in May 2024 and since then have been re-scheduled three times.

From the Macron entourage’s point of view, with five out of six New Caledonian political groups in attendance in Paris this week, “there is a possibility to bring about an agreement that would gather, if everyone signs, 75 percent of New Caledonia’s Congress members”.

75.9 percent support at local Congress
In New Caledonia’s Parliament (Congress), apart from the FLNKS (which currently holds 13 of the 54 seats, 24.08 percent), the other political parties who support the Bougival project total 41 MPs (75.9 percent).

New Caledonia’s other parties (both pro-independence and pro-France) who signed the Bougival document all resolved to honour their signatures and to continue defending it.

In the pro-independence camp, apart from a FLNKS now dominated by Union Calédonienne, two parties now regarded as “moderate” are supporting the Bougival process: PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia).

They split from the FLNKS, citing profound differences.

PALIKA and UPM are now formed into a Congress caucus totalling 12 MPs.

They believe within the Bougival project framework, their goal of full sovereignty remains achievable in the middle run.

However, even though they signed the document in July 2025, they have consistently voiced some reservations and sought more clarifications and possible amendments.

This regarded, for instance, questions as to how the envisaged transfers of powers would legally take place.

Apart from the pro-independence camp (FLNKS and UNI), the other parties, on the pro-France side, are Eveil Océanien-Calédonie Ensemble — now merged into one single Congress caucus of 8 MPs — Rassemblement (6) and Les Loyalistes (13).

Economy still reeling
During the Paris talks today, a significant part is also scheduled to focus on New Caledonia’s economic recovery and French assistance.

New Caledonia was engulfed in civil unrest in May 2024, leading to the death of 14 people, more than 2 billion euros in damage, thousands left jobless and a drop of 13.5 percent in the French territory’s GDP.

Last month, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu mooted a plan totalling over €2 billion over a five-year period to help the French Pacific territory’s recovery.

But the plan would also involve, beyond five years, that France should cease funding areas and powers that had already been transferred to local authorities over the past 20 years, under the previous 1998 Nouméa autonomy Accord.

Meanwhile, the French assistance plans depend on passing the 2026 budget, which has not been endorsed yet by a divided French Parliament with no clear majority.

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu survived another two motions of no confidence, tabled respectively by far-right Rassemblement National (RN) and far-left LFI (La France Insoumise, Unbowed France).

The LFI motion received 256 votes in support while the RN document was supported by 142 MPs.

They needed at least 288 votes to trigger the downfall of the French government.

They were both in protest against France’s stance with regards to the signing of the Mercosur free trade agreement between European Union and Latin American countries on  January 10.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A rift within New Caledonia’s pro-independence movement has further widened after the second component of the “moderates”, the UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia), has officially announced it has now left the once united Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

The UPM announcement, at a press conference in Nouméa, comes only five days after the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), another moderate pro-independence group, also made official it was splitting from the FLNKS.

It was in line with resolutions taken at the party’s Congress held at the weekend.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

Both groups have invoked similar reasons for the move.

UPM leader Victor Tutugoro told local media on Wednesday his party found it increasingly “difficult to exist today within the [FLNKS] pro-independence movement, part of which has now widely radicalised through outrage and threats”.

He said both his party and PALIKA did not recognise themselves anymore in the FLNKS’s increasingly “violent operating mode”.

Tutugoro recalled that since August 2024, UPM had not taken part in the operation of the “new FLNKS” [including its political bureau] because it did not accept its “forceful ways” under the increasing domination of Union Calédonienne, especially the recruitment of new “nationalist” factions and the appointment of CCAT leader and UC political commissar Christian Téin as its new President,.

Téin was arrested in June 2024 for alleged criminal-related charges before and during the May 2024 riots and then flown to mainland France.

After one year in jail in Mulhouse (North-east of France), his pre-trial conditions were released and in October 2025, he was eventually authorised to return to New Caledonia, where he should be back in the next few days.

Téin and a “Collectif Solidarité Kanaky 18” however announced Téin was to hold a public meeting themed “Which way for the Decolonisation of Kanaky-New Caledonia?” on 22 November 2025 in the small French city of Bourges, local media reported.

“This will be his last public address before he returns to New Caledonia,” said organisers.

Tutugoro says things worsened since the negotiations that led to the signing of a Bougival agreement, in July 2025, from which FLNKS pulled out in August 2025, denouncing what they described as a “lure of independence”.

“This agreement now separates us from the new FLNKS. And this is another reason for us to say we have nothing left to do [with them],” said Tutugoro.

UPM recalls it was a founding member of the FLNKS in 1984.

UPM, PALIKA founding members of FLNKS 41 years ago
On November 14, the PALIKA [Kanak Liberation Party] revealed the outcome of its 50th Congress held six days earlier, which now makes official its withdrawal from the FLNKS (a platform it was part of since the FLNKS was set up in 1984).

It originally comprised PALIKA, UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia), Union Calédonienne (UC) and Wallisian-based Rassemblement démocratique océanien (RDO).

PALIKA said it had decided to formally split from FLNKS because it disagreed with the FLNKS approach since the May 2024 riots.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French minister for overseas Naïma Moutchou left New Caledonia at the weekend after a 5-day stay, with an announcement regarding a re-scheduled referendum-like consultation on a project for the French Pacific territory’s political future — but few pledges regarding further French commitment to tackle a dire financial situation.

Her visit also coincided with another formal announcement from one major “moderate” component of the pro-independence movement to officialise an already existing split with the now hard-line FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front).

On Friday, November 14, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) revealed the outcome of its 50th Congress held six days earlier, which now makes official its withdrawal from the FLNKS (a platform it was part of since the FLNKS was set up in 1984).

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

It originally comprised PALIKA, UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia), Union Calédonienne (UC) and Wallisian-based Rassemblement démocratique océanien (RDO).

The PALIKA said it decided to formally split from FLNKS because it had disagreed with the FLNKS approach since the May 2024 riots.

Since the announcement on Friday, PALIKA spokesman Charles Washetine told several local media his party was still supporting a project of “full sovereignty” with France, through negotiation and dialogue.

But “it’s certainly not through destruction that we will build something for our children”, he stressed.

He admitted the Bougival text was “perfectible”.

Distanced from FLNKS
At the time, especially after the FLNKS Congress held in August 2024, two of its significant components, PALIKA and UPM had already distanced itself from the FLNKS and the CCAT,  saying it “did not recognise itself”.

The CCAT (Field Action Coordinating Cell) is a group that was then tasked to organise protests against a planned Constitutional change that later degenerated into the riots claimed the lives of 14 people.

At its August 2024 Congress, at which neither PALIKA nor UPM took part, FLNKS also resolved that such “mobilisation tools” as CCAT and several other groups, were officially accepted into the party’s fold.

Christian Téin, who was at the time the CCAT leader, was also elected president of the FLNKS in absentia.

He had been arrested two months earlier and flown to Paris, where he served one year behind bars before judges ruled he could be released, pending his trial at a yet undetermined date.

He is still facing crime-related charges in relation to his alleged role during the May 2024 riots.

UPM held its congress at the weekend and it is widely believed it will make similar announcements regarding its formal withdrawal from FLNKS.

‘I’m not interfering’
“I’m not interfering in local politics, but PALIKA has been a major player in terms of dialogue, forever . . .  What matters to me is to know who my interlocutors are,” Moutchou said on PALIKA’s split from FLNKS.

She noted however that in its latest communiqué, FLNKS had still expressed the wish to pursue dialogue.

“But they are rejecting the Bougival agreement, they’re rejecting it in block. They just don’t want to talk on this basis. So the door should stay open.”

During talks with the French minister last week, most of the topics revolved around the so-called Bougival political compromise that resulted in the signing, on July 12 of a document, initially by all political parties, under the auspices of former French Overseas Minister Manuel Valls.

The Bougival text envisages the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, its collateral “New Caledonian Nationality” and the transfer of a number of French key powers (such as foreign affairs) to the Pacific territory.

But FLNKS, on August 9, formally rejected the text, saying their negotiators’ signatures were now null and void because the text was regarded as a “lure of independence” and that it did not satisfy the party’s demands in terms of short-term full sovereignty.

Since then, as part of a new cabinet let by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, Manuel Valls was replaced in October by Naïma Moutchou.

FLNKS urged to rejoin negotiation
In this capacity, she travelled to New Caledonia for the first time, saying she did not want to “do without FLNKS”, provided FLNKS did not want to “do without the other (parties)”.

Parties supporting the Bougival document have also urged FLNKS to re-join the negotiating process, even if this means the original July 2025 document has to be modified according to their demands.

During her stay last week, separate meetings (locally described as “bilateral”) were held with every political force in New Caledonia, including FLNKS, and other pro-independence movements (such as the PALIKA and the UPM, regarded as “moderates”), but also the pro-France parties (such as Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble and Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien).

The FLNKS declined to join a final roundtable with other political stakeholders on Thursday and Friday last week, saying it was not mandated to negotiate.

True to her approach of “listening first and replying after”, Moutchou refrained from making any comment or announcement during the first three days of her mission.

De facto referendum now comes first
But as she prepared to leave on Friday, she spoke to announce that the project of a “citizen’s consultation” (a de facto referendum) would take place sometime in February 2026 to ask the local population whether they supported the Bougival document’s implementation.

The consultation was already in the pipeline as part of the Bougival document, but it was originally planned to happen after a Constitutional review purposed to incorporate the text, ideally before the end of 2025.

But the Constitutional process, which would require the approval of votes from both the French Senate (Upper House) and National Assembly (Lower House), was delayed by instability in the French politic, including the demise of former Prime Minister François Bayrou and the subsequent advent of his successor Sébastien Lecornu.

On Friday, Moutchou also issued a brief communiqué saying that “pro-Bougival” parties had agreed to confirm their support in the implementation of the text and to “hold an anticipated citizens’ consultation”.

“We’re going to ask New Caledonians for their opinion first. This will give more power to what is being discussed”, she told public broadcaster NC la 1ère last Friday.

She said this was to “give back New Caledonians their voice in a moment of tension, because we indeed are in a moment of tension, when political choices are not always understood”.

In a media statement released the same day, the FLNKS reiterates its stance, saying “the so-called Bougival project cannot constitute a working base because it goes against (New Caledonia’s) decolonisation process”.

‘Written in black and white’
“It’s written in black and white in the Bougival agreement project: the decolonisation process goes on”, Moutchou told local media.

The party also warns against “any attempt of forceful passage (passage en force) risks bringing the country to a situation of durable instability”.

In terms of security, Moutchou said “to be very clear, it will be zero tolerance”.

“Security forces will stay as long as needed. We currently have 20 gendarmerie squadrons (more than 2500 personnel). This is 20 out of the 120 squads available for the whole of France”, she told NC la 1ère.

“I’m very attached to the authority of the State. There are rules and they must be respected. You can demonstrate, you can say you don’t agree. But you don’t cross the red line,” she told Radio Rythme Bleu on Friday.

The FLNKS said during the minister’s visit, they had handed over a project for a “framework agreement” that would serve as a basis for “future discussions”.

Favourable reaction
On the pro-France side, several leaders have reacted favourably to Moutchou’s parting release.

“The minister’s visit concludes on a positive note”, Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach wrote on social networks, saying this citizen consultation project will “turn New Caledonians into judges of peace”.

“At this stage, FLNKS does not seem to want to find an agreement with the (French) State and New Caledonia’s political forces. The other forces have therefore made the choice to submit the Bougival agreement to New Caledonians before the (French) Parliament approves a Constitutional Bill”, wrote Les Loyalistes leader Sonia Backès.

However, it remains unclear on what basis this de facto local referendum will be held in terms of electoral role and who will be qualified to vote.

No new economic pledge
In the brief communiqué on Friday last week, a “plan to re-launch New Caledonia’s economy” to “address the challenges” is also mentioned as one of the agreed goals.

But there was no announcement regarding further financial assistance from France to salvage New Caledonia’s economy, still bearing the consequences of the May 2024 insurrectional riots and that has caused material losses of over 2 billion euros (about NZ$4 billion), an estimated drop of 13.5 percent of its GDP and thousands of unemployed.

There are also increasingly strident calls to convert the 1 billion euro French loan (bringing New Caledonia to an estimated 360 percent indebtedness rate regarded as “unbearable”) into a grant.

Moutchou said this was currently “not on the agenda”.

The crucial mining industry, which was already suffering industrial issues even before the May 2024 riots, compounded with emerging regional competition, needed to be re-structured in order to overhaul its business model and production costs, she said.

‘We don’t have the financial means to build the new prison’
A 500 million euro project to build a new prison, initially announced in early 2024 for scheduled completion in 2032, will no longer take place, despite numerous condemnations due to the appalling living conditions for prisoners in the current Camp Est prison complex in Nouméa.

The Camp Est suffers an overpopulation ratio of 140 percent.

“I’m not going to tell you stories, in the current (French) budgetary conditions, we don’t have the financial means to build the new prison”, she told NC la 1ère.

Instead, it was now envisaged to set a semi-freedom centre for host inmates serving moderate jail sentences, thus relieving the overcrowded Camp Est premises of an estimated one hundred people.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou’s first visit to New Caledonia is marked by marathon political talks and growing concerns about the French Pacific territory’s deteriorating economic situation.

Moutchou arrived on Monday on a visit scheduled to last until tomorrow.

With a backdrop of political uncertainty and the economic consequences of the May 2024 riots, she has been meeting with a large panel of political and economic stakeholders over concerns about New Caledonia’s future.

• READ MORE: ‘Profound distrust’ in France, says Pacific people’s mission report calling for new Kanaky negotiations
• People’s mission to Kanaky warns over ‘broken trust’ in France about decolonisation
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

On Monday, she met a group of about 40 political, business and economic leaders.

All of them voiced their concerns about New Caledonia’s short-term future and what they term as a “lack of visibility” and fear about what 2026 could hold.

Some of these fears are related to a lack of financial support necessary for a proper recovery of the local economy, which was devastated by the 2024 riots and caused damages of over 2 billion euros (NZ$4 million) with an estimated drop of the local GDP by 13.5 percent, the destruction of hundreds of businesses and the subsequent loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

The French government last year unlocked a special loan of 1 billion euros, but it will now have to be reimbursed and has created a huge debt for the French Pacific archipelago.

Huge loan issue
A vast majority of economic and political leaders now seem to agree that the huge loan granted in 2024 should be converted into a non-refundable grant.

New Caledonia’s indebtedness rate, as a result, soared to 360 percent for debts that will have to be refunded as early as 2026, at a high interest rate of 4.54 percent.

“The urgency is about finding jobs for those 12,000 people who have lost their jobs”, employers’ association MEDEF-NC vice president Bertrand Courte told reporters after the meeting.

“We need to kick-start the economy with large-scale works and only the French State can do it”, he said, echoing a feeling of disappointment.

The fears are further compounded by looming deadlines such as the local retirement scheme, which is threatening to collapse.

A special scheme to assist the unemployed, which was extended from 2024, is also to come to an end in December 2025. There are pleas to extend it once again at least until June 2026.

“We do understand that now, from France’s point of view, it’s a give and take situation”, said Medium and Small Businesses president Christophe Dantieux.

Public spending cuts
“[France] will only give if we make more efforts in terms of reforms. But there have already been quite a few efforts made in 2025, especially 15 percent cuts on public spending, but it looks like it’s not enough.”

One of the scheduled large-scale projects was the construction of a new prison, which was announced in 2023 but has not started.

On the macro-economic scale, New Caledonia is also facing several crucial challenges.

Huge losses in terms of tax collection have been estimated to a staggering US$600 million, as well as a deficit of some US$500 million in public accounts.

Another obstacle to boosting investments or re-investments, since the 2024 riots, was that most insurance companies are continuing to exclude a “riots risk” clause in their new policies.

On the French national level, the much-disputed 2026 Budget for Overseas is scheduled to take place starting November 18 and this also includes threats such as the intention to scrap tax exemption benefits for French companies intending to invest in France’s overseas territories, including New Caledonia.

“There is an economic, financial and budget urgency”, New Caledonia government President Alcide Ponga said following the minister’s meeting with the whole Cabinet.

“The minister is well aware that our budget situation is catastrophic and she intends to help us”, Congress (Parliament) President Veylma Falaeo said after her meeting with Moutchou.

Yohann Lecourieux, mayor of the city of Dumbéa (near the capital Nouméa), also provided a telling example of the current hardships faced by the population: “Eight hundred of our students no longer eat in our schools’ canteens simply because the families can no longer afford to pay.”

Political talks: no immediate outcome
On Tuesday, Moutchou focused on political talks with all parties on the local chessboard, one after the other.

The major challenge was to resume political discussions after one of the major components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), mainly dominated by historic Union Calédonienne, decided to withdraw from a proposed consensual project signed in July 2025 in Bougival (in the outskirts of Paris) after a week-long session of intense talks fostered by Moutchou predecessor, Manuel Valls.

The Bougival text was proposing to create a “State of New Caledonia”, as well as a New Caledonian nationality and transfer of key powers (such as foreign affairs) from France.

Since FLNKS denounced its negotiators’ signatures, all of New Caledonia’s other parties have committed to defend the Bougival text, while at the same time urging FLNKS to come back to the table and possibly submit their desired modifications.

Since she was appointed to the sensitive portfolio last month, Moutchou, in Paris repeated that she did not intend to “do without” FLNKS, as long as FLNKS did not intend to “do without the other (parties)”.

Moutchou also said her approach was “listen first and then reply”.

Following a two-hour meeting on Tuesday between Moutchou and the FLNKS delegation, it maintained its stance and commitment to “sincere dialogue” based on a “clear discussion and negotiation method”.

‘We will not change course’ – FLNKS
“We will not change course. This is a first contact to remind of the defiance and loss of trust from FLNKS with the [French] State since December 2021,” FLNKS spokesperson Dominique Fochi said.

He said the FLNKS still “wishes out of the French Republic’s fold in order to create solid ties with countries of the region or even with France”.

Saying the Bougival text was a “lure of independence”, FLNKS had previously also posed a pre-requirement that future negotiations should be held in New Caledonia and placed under the auspices of the United Nations, in a spirit of decolonisation.

Late October 2025, both Houses of the French Parliament endorsed, for the third time, that New Caledonia’s crucial provincial local elections (scheduled to be held before December 2025) should now take place no later than June 2026.

The postponement was validated by France’s Constitutional Council on November 6.

This was specifically designed to allow more time for political talks to produce a consensual agreement on New Caledonia’s political future, possibly a continuation or refining (by way of amendments) of the Bougival text.

Pro-France parties
On the side of parties who want New Caledonia to remain part of France (and are opposed to independence), Les Loyalistes leader and Southern Province President Sonia Backès, said she and other pro-France parties also remained open to further discussions.

“But we’ve already made a lot of concessions in the Bougival agreement”, she said.

“[Moutchou] now has understood that New Caledonia is out of breath and that we now have to move forward, especially politically”, Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach said after talks with the French minister.

“We can no longer procrastinate, or else New Caledonia will not recover if we don’t have an agreement that carries prospects for all of our territory’s population,” Ruffenach said.

“We are still hopeful that, by the end of this week, we can move forward and find a way… But this cannot be the theory of chaos that’s being imposed on us.”

The ‘moderate’ pro-independence parties
Two former pillars of FLNKS, now described as “moderates” within the pro-independence movement, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia), who have distanced themselves from FLNKS since August 2024, after the riots, are now staunch supporters of the Bougival project.

“We are committed to (the Bougival) accord… Our militants said some improvements could be made. That’s what we told the minister and she said yes”, UNI Congress caucus president Jean-Pierre Djaïwé told local media after discussions with Moutchou.

He said those possible amendments could touch on the short-term handing over of a number of powers by France, but that this should not affect the Bougival project’s fragile “general balance”.

They say the text, although not perfect because it is a compromise, still makes full sovereignty achievable.

PALIKA held its important annual congress over the weekend and says it will announce its main outcomes later this week.

A strong faction within PALIKA is currently pushing for the “moderate” line (as opposed to the hard-line FLNKS) to be pursued and therefore a formal divorce with FLNKS should be made official.

On the “pro-Bougival” side, currently re-grouping all pro-France parties and the pro-independence moderates PALIKA and UPM, grouped into a “UNI” (Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance) caucus at the local Congress, some of the mooted possible future options could be to place all bets on the local referendum to be held early 2026 and its possible outcome pronouncing a vast majority for the July 2025 text.

They believe, based on the current party representation at the Congress, that this Bougival text could gather between 60 and 80 percent of local support.

Another party, Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and its vice-president Milakulo Tukumuli told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Sunday another option could be to just “agree to disagree” and base the rest of future developments on the outcomes of New Caledonia’s provincial elections.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A Paris appeal court has confirmed that Kanak pro-independence leader Christian Téin is now cleared to return to New Caledonia.

In September, a panel of judges had pronounced they were in favour of Téin’s return to New Caledonia, but the Public Prosecution then appealed, suspending his return.

However, in a ruling delivered on Thursday, the Paris Appeal Court confirmed the Kanak leader is now free to travel back to the French Pacific territory.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

In June 2024, at the height of violent riots, Téin and other pro-independence leaders were arrested in Nouméa and swiftly flown to mainland France aboard a specially-chartered plane.

They were suspected of playing a key role in the riots that broke out mid-May 2024 and were later indicted with criminal charges.

The charges for which Téin remains under judicial supervision include theft and destruction of property involving the use of weapons.

His pre-trial conditions had been eased in June 2025, when he was released from the Mulhouse jail in eastern France, but he was not allowed to return to New Caledonia at the time.

Téin’s lawyers react to the decision
Téin’s lawyers said they were “satisfied and relieved”.

“This time, Téin is allowed to go back to his land after 18 months of being deprived [of freedom],” one of Téin’s counsels, Florian Medico, told French national media.

One main argument from the Public Prosecution was that under “fragile” post-riot circumstances, Téin’s return to New Caledonia was not safe.

Public Prosecutor Christine Forey also invoked the fact that an investigation in this case was still ongoing for a trial at a yet undetermined date.

Previous restrictions imposed on Téin (such as not interfering with other persons related to the same case) were also lifted.

The ruling also concerns four other defendants, all pro-independence leaders.

Case not closed yet
“It’s now up to the investigating judges, in a few months’ time, to decide whether to rule on a lack of evidence, or to bring the indicted persons before a court to be judged . . . But this won’t happen before early 2026,” lawyer François Roux told reporters.

Téin is the leader of a CCAT “field action co-ordinating cell” set-up by one of the main pro-independence parties in New Caledonia — the Union Calédonienne (UC).

Although jailed at the time in mainland France to serve a pre-trial term, he was designated, in absentia, president of the main pro-independence umbrella, the FLNKS, during a congress in August 2024.

However, during the same congress, two other pillars of the FLNKS, the moderate pro-independence UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) and PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), distanced themselves and de facto split from the UC-dominated FLNKS.

The two parties have since kept away from FLNKS political bureau meetings.

Meanwhile, in January 2025, the case was transferred from a panel of judges in Nouméa to another group of magistrates based in Paris.

They ruled on June 12 that, while Téin and five other pro-independent militants should be released from custody, they were not allowed to return to New Caledonia or interfere with other people associated with the same case.

Now allowed
But in a ruling delivered in Paris on September 23, the new panel of judges ruled Téin was now allowed to return to New Caledonia.

The ruling was based on the fact that since he was no longer kept in custody and even though he had expressed himself publicly and politically, Téin had not incited or called for violent actions.

He still faces charges related to organised crime for events that took place during the New Caledonia riots starting from 13 May 2024, following a series of demonstrations and marches that later degenerated, resulting in 14 dead and over 2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion) in damage.

The 2024 marches were to protest against a plan from the French government of the time to modify the French Constitution and “unfreeze” restrictions on the list of eligible voters at local provincial elections.

The Indigenous pro-independence movement says these changes would effectively “dilute” the Kanak Indigenous vote and bring it closer to a minority.

Back in New Caledonia, the prospect of Téin’s return has sparked reactions.

Outrage on the pro-France side
On the pro-France side, most parties who oppose independence and support the notion that New Caledonia should remain part of France have reacted indignantly to the prospect of Téin’s return.

The uproar included reactions from outspoken leaders Nicolas Metzdorf and Sonia Backès, who insist that Téin’s return to New Caledonia could cause more unrest.

Le Rassemblement-LR leader Virginie Ruffenach also reacted saying she wondered whether “the judges realise the gravity of their ruling”.

“We’re opposed to this . . .  it’s like bringing back a pyromaniac to New Caledonia’s field of ashes while we’re trying to rebuild,” she told local media.

Meanwhile, a “non-political” petition has been published online to express “firm opposition” to Téin’s return to New Caledonia “in the current circumstances” because of the “risks involved” in terms of civil peace in a “fragile” social and economic context after the May 2024 riots.

Since 30 September 2025, the online petition has collected more than 10,000 signatures from people who describe themselves as a “Citizens Collective Against the Return of Christian Téin”.

“Immense relief”: FLNKS
Reacting on Friday on social networks, the FLNKS hailed the appeal ruling, saying this was “an immense relief for their families, loved ones and the whole pro-independence movement”.

“The struggle doesn’t stop, it goes on, even stronger”, the FLNKS said, referring to the current parliamentary battle in Paris to implement the “Bougival” agreement signed in July 2025, which FLNKS rejects.

Within the pro-independence movement, a rift within FLNKS has become increasingly apparent during recent negotiations on New Caledonia’s political future, held in Bougival, west of Paris, which led to the signature, on 12 July 2025, of a text that posed a roadmap for the French territory’s future status.

It mentions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, a short-term transfer of powers from Paris, including in foreign affairs matters and the dual French-New Caledonian nationality.

But while UPM and PALIKA delegates signed the text with all the other political tendencies, the UC-dominated FLNKS said a few days after the signing that the Bougival deal was rejected “in block” because it did not meet the party’s expectations in terms of full sovereignty.

Their negotiators’ signatures were then deemed as invalid because, the party said, they did not have the mandate to sign.

In a letter to French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, and copied to French President Emmanuel Macron and Speakers of both Houses of Parliament, in early October 2025, the FLNKS reiterated that they had “formally withdrawn” their signatures from the Bougival deal and that therefore these signatures should not be “used abusively”.

Bougival deal continues
However, despite a spate of instability that saw a succession of two French governments formed over the past two weeks, the implementation of the Bougival deal continues.

In the latest cabinet meeting this week, the French Minister for Overseas, Manuel Valls, was replaced by Naïma Moutchou.

Last Wednesday, the French Senate endorsed the postponement of New Caledonia’s provincial elections to June 2026.

The same piece of legislation will be tabled before the Lower house, the French National Assembly, on October 22.

In a media conference on Wednesday, Union Calédonienne (UC), the main component of FLNKS, warned against the risks associated with yet another “passage en force”.

“This is a message of alert, an appeal to good sense, not a threat”, UC secretary-general Dominique Fochi added.

“If this passage en force happens, we really don’t know what is going to happen,” Fochi said.

“The Bougival agreement allows a path to reconciliation. It must be transcribed into the Constitution,” Lecornu told the National Assembly.

Also speaking in Parliament for the first time since she was appointed Minister for Overseas, Naïma Moutchou assured that in her new capacity, she would be there “to listen” and “to act”.

This, she said, included trying to re-engage FLNKS into fresh talks, with the possibility of bringing some amendments to the much-contested Bougival text.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A controversial piece of legislation to postpone the date for New Caledonia’s crucial provincial elections passed its first hurdle in the French Senate on Wednesday.

The vote was endorsed in the French Upper House by a large majority of 299-42.

The day before, another piece of constitutional legislation was also tabled before the Council of Ministers as a matter of emergency just hours after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu’s second Cabinet in a week was appointed.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

Earlier this month, the postponement of the polls was approved in principle by New Caledonia’s Congress.

In the form of an “organic law”, it is part of the implementation process of the Bougival agreement text, which was signed on July 12 near Paris, and initially signed by all of New Caledonia’s parties, both pro-France and pro-independence.

However, one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), denounced the agreement a few days later, saying it did not meet the party’s demands in terms of quick accession to full sovereignty.

The FLNKS said their negotiators’ signatures were therefore now considered null and void.

For the purposes of implementing the text, despite very tight deadlines, one part of its implementation should leave more time for negotiations and it was perceived one way to achieve this was to postpone the elections (which were scheduled to be held not later than November 30) until not later than end of June 2026.

The move, if it succeeds, has to happen before November 2. It means that before then the same text has to be endorsed by the Lower House, the French National Assembly.

If it fails, then the provincial elections’ date will have to be maintained at the original date and under the current voting restrictions.

Before that, New Caledonia’s provincial elections were already postponed twice — initially scheduled to take place in May 2024, then re-scheduled to no later than December 2024 — mostly because of the civil unrest that shook New Caledonia after the deadly May 2024 riots.

The riots were themselves the culmination of pro-independence protests and marches that escalated in response to a French government project to modify the conditions of eligibility for local elections and lift previous restrictions on the electoral roll.

At the time, pro-independence opponents said this would have resulted in indigenous voters becoming a minority because their vote would be diluted.

During debates in the Senate this week, what was presented as a “bipartisan” Bill also stressed the need to resolve current disagreements on the Bougival agreement and take more time to include FLNKS with the rest of New Caledonian parties.

Opponents to the text, among others the French Greens (les Ecologistes) and the Communist Party, maintained that FLNKS had rejected the Bougival deal “in block”, because such agreement simply “doesn’t exist”.

Passage en force
They are accusing the French government of attempting to pass the text “by force”.

The same text is scheduled to be tabled before the Lower House (National Assembly) next week on October 22.

But in the Lower House, debates will be tougher and the final vote will be much more uncertain. The Lower House majority is not clear, MPs being split between the centre right, the far right, the centre left and the far left.

While reactions from the pro-France politicians in Nouméa yesterday were mostly favourable to the latest Senate vote, the now-dominant component within FLNKS, the Union Calédonienne (UC), held a media conference to once again express its disapproval of postponing the local elections.

Instead, it wanted the original dates — before November 30 — to be maintained, along with the current voting eligibility restrictions.

Fresh talks with FLNKS?
UC President Emmanuel Tjibaou told local media this did not exclude that further negotiations could be held after the local elections.

But in reference to the May 2024 riots, Tjibaou said he feared that “the same mistakes of the past … The passage en force… are being made again”.

He said discussions and debates must prevail on the Parliament floor.

Tjibaou is flying to Paris at the weekend to take part in the National Assembly (of which he is one of the two elected MPs for New Caledonia) vote on 22 October 2025.

“This is an alert, an appeal to good sense, not a threat,” UC secretary-general Dominique Fochi added.

“If this passage en force happens, we really don’t know what is going to happen,” Fochi said.

Another component of the pro-independence chessboard in New Caledonia, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), usually described as more “moderate”, has also reacted on Thursday to the French Senate’s vote.

“This is rather good news, because it is part of the Bougival timeframe and we support this,” PALIKA leader Charles Washetine said.

PALIKA and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) both decided to distance themselves from the FLNKS, of which they were both key members, at the end of August 2024.

Since the Bougival agreement was signed, PALIKA and UPM have sided in support of the deal, which envisions the creation of a “State of New Caledonia”, of a French-New Caledonian dual nationality and the short-term transfer of key powers from France, such as foreign affairs.

Those notions, amounting to a de facto Constitution for New Caledonia, are to be also later included to translate into appropriate legal terms in the French Constitution.

This should be submitted to Parliament “by the end of this year”, Lecornu said during his maiden Parliament address on Tuesday, October 14.

And sometime “this spring (2026)”, qualified citizens of New Caledonia would also have to vote on the text by way of a referendum dedicated to the subject.

Bougival agreement ‘allows a path to reconciliation’ – Lecornu
“The Bougival agreement allows a path to reconciliation. It must be transcribed into the Constitution”, Lecornu told the National Assembly.

Also speaking in Parliament for the first time since she was appointed Minister for Overseas, Naïma Moutchou said that in her new capacity, she would be there “to listen” and “to act”.

This, she said, included trying to re-engage FLNKS into fresh talks, with the possibility of bringing some amendments to the much-contested Bougival text.

“To translate Bougival into facts takes time”.

She also admitted that a real consensus was needed.

“We cannot do it without the FLNKS. And we will not do it without the FLNKS,” she said.

She spoke in defence of the postponement of local elections.

“To postpone elections does not mean to postpone democracy, it means giving it back solid foundations, it is to choose lucidity rather than precipitation”, she told MPs.

Meanwhile, yesterday in Paris, PM Lecornu, who formed his cabinet last Sunday, survived his first batch of two simultaneous motions of no-confidence in the National Assembly.

The first, filed by far-right Rassemblement National (RN), received the support of 271 MPs, not enough to reach the necessary 289 votes.

The second, filed by far-left La France Insoumise (LFI, France Unbowed), received 144 votes.

During the pre-censure vote debates, New Caledonian MP pro-France Nicolas Metzdorf took the floor for a few minutes telling MPs that if it could serve as an inspiration, in the French Pacific territory, local laws made it impossible for a government to be toppled less than 18 months after it was formed.

Lecornu, who is very knowledgeable on New Caledonia’s affairs because of his two-year experience as French Minister for Overseas in 2020-2022, was all smiles.

French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has ended an extended seven-day visit to New Caledonia with mixed feelings.

On one hand, he said he was confident his “Bougival deal” for New Caledonia’s future is now “more advanced” after three sittings of a “drafting committee” made up of local politicians.

On the other hand, despite his efforts and a three-hour meeting on Tuesday before he returned to Paris, he could not convince the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — the main component of the pro-independence camp — to join the “Bougival” process.

• READ MORE: French PM’s confidence vote hits New Caledonia’s political negotiations
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

The FLNKS recently warned against any attempt to “force” an agreement they were not part of, raising concerns about possible unrest similar to the riots that broke out in May 2024, causing 14 deaths and more than 2 billion euros (about NZ$3.8 billion) in material damage.

The unrest has crystallised around a constitutional reform bill that sought to change the rules of eligibility for voters at local provincial elections. The bill prompted fears among the Kanak community that it was seeking to “dissolve” indigenous votes.

But despite the FLNKS snub, all the other pro-independence and pro-France parties took part in the committee sessions, which are now believed to have produced a Constitutional Reform Bill.

That bill is due to be tabled in both France’s parliament chambers (the National Assembly and the Senate) and later before a special meeting of both houses (a “Congress” — a joint meeting of both Houses of Parliament).

Valls still upbeat
Speaking to local reporters just before leaving the French Pacific territory on Tuesday, Valls remained upbeat and adamant that despite the FLNKS snub, the Bougival process is now “better seated”.

“When I arrived in New Caledonia one week ago, many were wondering what would become of the Bougival accord we signed. Some said it was still-born. Today I’m going back with the feeling that the accord is comforted and that we have made considerable advances,” he said.

He pointed out that non-political players, such as the Great Traditional Indigenous Chiefs Customary Senate and the Economic and Social Council, also joined some of the “drafting” sessions to convey their respective input.

Valls hailed a “spirit of responsibility” and a “will to implement” the Bougival document, despite a more than three-hour meeting with a new delegation from FLNKS just hours before his departure on Tuesday.

The FLNKS still opposes the Bougival text their negotiators had initially signed, that was later denounced following pressure from their militant base, invoking a profound “incompatibility” of the text with the movement’s “full sovereignty” and “decolonisation” goals.

Also demands for this process to be completed before the next French Presidential elections, currently scheduled for April-May 2027.

The Bougival deal signed on July 12 near Paris was initially agreed to by all of New Caledonia’s political parties represented at the local parliament, the Congress. However, it was later denounced and rejected “in block” by the FLNKS.

Door ‘remains open’
Valls consistently stressed that his door “remains open” to the FLNKS throughout his week-long stay in New Caledonia. This was his fourth trip to the territory since he was appointed to the post by French Prime Minister François Bayrou in December 2024.

He pointed out that non-political players, such as the (Great Traditional Indigenous Chiefs) Customary Senate and the Economic and Social Council, also had joined some of the “drafting” sessions to convey their input.

In a statement after meeting with Valls, the FLNKS reiterated its categorical rejection” of the Bougival process while at the same time saying it was “ready to build an agreement on independence with all [political] partners”.

“I will continue working with them and I also invite FLNKS to discuss with the other political parties. I don’t want to strike a deal without the FLNKS, or against the FLNKS,” he told local public broadcaster NC 1ère on Tuesday.

He said the Bougival document was still in a “decolonisation process”.

‘Fresh talks’ in Paris
Valls repeated his open-door policy and told local media that he did not rule out meeting FLNKS president Christian Téin in Paris for “fresh talks” in the “next few days”.

Téin was released from jail mid-June 2025, but he remains barred from returning to New Caledonia as part of judicial controls imposed on him, pending his trial on criminal-related charges over the May 2024 riots.

At the time, Téin was the leader of a CCAT (field action coordinating cell) to mount a protest campaign against a Constitutional reform bill that was eventually scrapped.

The CCAT was set up late 2023 by one of the main components of the FLNKS, Union Calédonienne.

While he was serving a pre-trial jail term, in August 2024, Téin was elected president in absentia of the FLNKS.

As for FLNKS’s demand that they and no other party should be the sole representatives of the pro-independence movement, Valls said this was “impossible”.

“New Caledonia’s society is not only [made up of] FLNKS. There still exists a space for discussion, the opportunity has to be seized because New Caledonia’s society is waiting for an agreement”.

However, some political parties (including moderates such as Eveil Océanien (Pacific Islanders’ Awakening) and pro-France Calédonie Ensemble have expressed concern on the value of the Bougival process if it was to be pushed through despite the FLNKS non-participation.

Other pro-independent parties, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and the UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), have distanced themselves from the FLNKS coalition they used to belong to.

They remain committed to their signature and are now working along the Bougival lines.

‘There won’t be another May 13’
Valls said the the situation is different now because an agreement exists, adding that the Bougival deal “is a comprehensive accord, not just on the electoral rules”.

On possible fresh unrest, the former prime minister said “this time, [the French State will not be taken by surprise. There won’t be another 13 May”.

He stressed during his visit that some 20 units (over 2000) of law enforcement personnel (gendarmerie, police) remain posted in New Caledonia.

“And there will be more if necessary”, Valls assured.

When the May 2024 riots broke out, the law enforcement numbers were significantly lower and it took several days before reinforcements from Paris eventually arrived in New Caledonia to restore law and order.

Very tight schedule
The Constitutional Reform Bill would cover a large spectrum of issues, including the creation, for the first time in France, of a “State of New Caledonia”, as well as a dual France/New Caledonia citizenship, all within the French Constitutional framework.

Two other documents — an organic law and a fundamental law (a de facto constitution) — are also being prepared for New Caledonia.

The organic law could come into force some time mid-October, if approved, and it would effectively postpone New Caledonia’s crucial provincial election to June 2026.

The plan was to have the freshly-produced text scrutinised by the French State Council, then approved by the French Cabinet on September 17.

Before the end of 2025, it would then be tabled before the French National Assembly, then the Senate, then the French special Congress sitting.

And before 28 February 2026, the same text would finally be put to the vote by way of a referendum for the people of New Caledonia.

French government to fall again?
Meanwhile, Valls is now facing another unfavourable political context: the announcement, on Monday, by his Prime Minister François Bayrou, to challenge France’s National Assembly MPs in a risky motion of confidence.

This, he said, was in direct relation to his Appropriation Bill (budget), which contains planned sweeping cuts of about 44 billion euros (NZ$87.4 billion) to tackle the “danger” of France further plunging into “over-indebtment”.

If the motion, tabled to be voted on September 8, reveals more defiance than confidence, then Bayrou and his cabinet (including Valls) fall.

In the face of urgent initial plans to have New Caledonia’s texts urgently tabled before French Parliament, Bayrou’s confidence vote is highly likely to further complicate New Caledonia’s political negotiations.

Pro-France leader and former French cabinet member Sonia Backès, who is also the leader of local pro-France Les Loyalistes party, however told local media she remained confident and that even if the Bayrou government fell on September 8, “there would still be a continuity”.

“But if this was to be followed by a dissolution of Parliament and snap elections, then, very clearly, this would impact on the whole New Caledonian process”, she said.

“The Bougival agreement will be implemented,” Valls said.

“And those who think that the fall of the French government would entail delays on its implementation schedule are mistaken, notwithstanding my personal situation which is not very important.

“I will keep a watch on New Caledonia’s interests.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s surprise announcement yesterday that he will call for a parliamentary confidence vote in his government is set to further complicate protracted talks in New Caledonia on the French territory’s political future.

The announcement comes as French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has extended his stay in New Caledonia, where he has supervised a “drafting committee” to translate a “Bougival Accord” signed in July to set the path for major political reforms for New Caledonia.

In a surprise and “risky” announcement yesterday, Bayrou said a confidence vote in his government would take place on September 8.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

He said this was in direct relation to his budget, which contains planned sweeping cuts of around 44 billion euros (NZ$87.6 billion) to tackle the “danger” of France plunging further into “over-indebtedness”.

“Yes it’s risky, but it’s even riskier not to do anything,” he told a press conference.

According to article 49.1 of the French Constitution, if a majority of parties votes in defiance, then Bayou and his minority government automatically fall.

Reacting to the announcement, parties ranging from far right, far left to the Greens have already indicated they would express defiance towards Bayrou and his cabinet.

‘End of the government’
Far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party chief Jordan Bardella said Bayrou, by calling for the vote, had effectively announced “the end of his government”.

Radical left France Unbowed (La France Insoumise) also said the vote would mark the end of the government.

This will place the Socialist MPs, whose votes could make the difference, in a crucial position.

Socialist party spokesman MP Arthur Delaporte, deplored Bayrou for remaining “deaf to the demands of the French” and appeared to remain “quite stubborn”.

“I don’t see how we could vote the confidence,” Delaporte told reporters.

To further compound the situation in France, a national “block everything” strike has been called on September 12, with the active support and backing from the far left parties and a number of trade unions.

Valls is still in New Caledonia, after he extended his stay twice and is now set to fly back to Paris later today.

Bid for FLNKS talks
The extension was an attempt to resume talks with the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which has attended none of the three sessions of the “drafting committee” on August 21, 23 and 35.

Talks within the committee were reported to be not only legal (with the help of a team of French high officials, including constitutionalists, but also highly political.

Valls announced a last-ditch session today with FLNKS before he flies back to Paris.

All of the other parties, both pro-independence and pro-France, took part in the committee sessions, which is now believed to have produced a Constitutional reform Bill that was to be tabled at both France’s Parliament chambers (the National Assembly and the Senate) and later before a special meeting of both houses (a “Congress”).

The Constitutional Bill would cover a large spectrum of issues, including the creation, for the first time in France, of a “State of New Caledonia”, as well as a dual France/New Caledonia citizenship.

Two other documents, an organic law and a fundamental law (a de facto constitution) are also being prepared for New Caledonia.

The Bougival deal signed on July 12 near Paris was initially agreed to by all of New Caledonia’s political parties represented at the local Parliament, the Congress.

Rejected ‘in block’
But it was later denounced and rejected “in block” by the FLNKS.

Valls has consistently stressed that his door “remains open” to the FLNKS.

Several local parties across the political chessboard (including the Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and moderate pro-France Calédonie Ensemble) have already expressed doubts as to whether the implementation of the Bougival deal could carry any value if they had taken place without the FLNKS.

In the face of urgent initial plans to have New Caledonia’s texts urgently tabled before French Parliament, Bayrou’s confidence challenge is highly likely to further complicate New Caledonia’s political negotiations.

The plan was to have the freshly-produced text scrutinised by the French State Council, then approved by the French Cabinet on September 17.

Before the end of 2025, it would then be tabled before the French National Assembly, then the Senate, then the French special Congress sitting.

And before 28 February 2026, the same text would finally be put to the vote by way of a referendum for the people of New Caledonia.

Pro-France leader and former French cabinet member Sonia Backès however told local media she remained confident that even if the Bayrou government fell on September 8, “there would still be a continuity”.

“But if this was to be followed by a dissolution of Parliament (and snap elections), then, very clearly, this would impact on the whole (New Caledonian) process,” she said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A newly established “drafting committee” held its inaugural meeting in Nouméa this week, aiming to translate the Bougival agreement — signed by New Caledonian political parties in Paris last month — into a legal and constitutional form.

However, the first sitting of the committee on Thursday took place without one of the main pro-independence parties, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which chose to stay out of the talks.

Visiting French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, who was in New Caledonia until the weekend, met a delegation of the FLNKS on Wednesday for more than two hours to try and convince them to participate.

• READ MORE: French Overseas Minister in New Caledonia in bid to ‘save’ Bougival deal
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

The FLNKS earlier announced a “block rejection” of the deal signed in Bougival because it regarded the text as “incompatible” with the party’s objectives and a “lure” in terms of self-determination and full sovereignty.

The deal outlines a roadmap for New Caledonia’s political future.

It is a compromise blueprint signed by New Caledonia’s parties from across the political spectrum and provides a vision for a “State” of New Caledonia, a dual French-New Caledonian citizenship, as well as a short-term transfer of such powers as foreign affairs from France to New Caledonia.

Even though FLNKS delegates initially signed the document in Bougival on July 12, their party later denounced the agreement and said its negotiators had no mandate to do so.

On Wednesday, as part of a round-up of talks with most political parties represented at the New Caledonian Congress, Valls held a separate meeting with a new delegation from FLNKS officials in Nouméa, in a last-ditch bid to convince them to take part in the “drafting committee” session.

‘Serene but firm’, says FLNKS
The FLNKS described the talks with Valls as “serene but firm”.

The FLNKS is demanding a “Kanaky Agreement” to be concluded before 24 September 2025 and a fully effective sovereignty process to be achieved before the next French Presidential elections in April 2027.

It also wants the provincial elections, initially scheduled to take place no later than November 30, to be maintained at this date, instead of being postponed once again to mid-2026 under the Bougival prescriptions.

But they were nowhere to be seen on Thursday, when the drafting group was installed.

Valls also spoke to New Caledonia’s chiefly (customary) Senate to dispel any misconception that the Bougival deal would be a setback in terms of recognition of the Indigenous Kanak identity and place in New Caledonia.

He said the Bougival pact was a “historic opportunity” for them to seize “because there is no other credible alternative”.

Indigenous recognition
The minister stressed that. even though this Indigenous recognition may be perceived as less emphatic in the Bougival document, the same text also clearly stipulated that all previous agreements and accords, including the 1998 Nouméa Accord which devoted significant chapters to the Kanak issue and recognition, were still fully in force.

And that if needed, amendments could still be made to the Bougival text to make this even more explicit.

The chiefs were present at the opening session of the committee on Thursday.

So was a delegation of mayors of New Caledonia, who expressed deep concerns about New Caledonia’s current situation, 15 months after the riots that broke out in New Caledonia mid-May 2024, causing 14 deaths, more than 2 billion euros (NZ$3.8 billion) in material damages and thousands of jobless due to the destruction of hundreds of businesses.

New Caledonia’s gross domestic product (GDP) is estimated to have dropped by 10 to 15 percent over the past 15 months.

As part of the post-riot ongoing trauma, New Caledonia is currently facing an acute shortage in the medical sector personnel — many of them have left following security issues related to the riots, gravely affecting the provision of essential and emergency services both in the capital Nouméa and in rural areas.

Who turned up?
Apart from the absent FLNKS, two other significant components of the pro-independence movement, former FLNKS moderate members Union Nationale pour l’Indépendance (UNI), consisting of PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) were also part of the new drafting committee participants.

UNI leaders said earlier they had signed the Bougival document because they believe even though it does not provide a short-term independence for New Caledonia, this could be gradually achieved in the middle run.

PALIKA and UPM, in a de facto split, distanced themselves from the FLNKS in August 2024 and have since abstained from taking part in the FLNKS political bureau.

On the side of those who wish New Caledonia to remain part of France (pro-France), all of its representative parties, who also signed the Bougival document, were present at the inaugural session of the drafting committee.

This includes Les Loyalistes, Le Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble and Wallisian-based “kingmaker” party Eveil Océanien.

After the first session on Thursday, pro-France politicians described the talks as “constructive” on everyone’s part.

‘My door remains wide open’
But there are also concerns as to whether such sessions (the next one is scheduled for Saturday) can viably and credibly carry on without the FLNKS taking part.

“We just can’t force this or try to achieve things without consensus,” Eveil Océanien leader Milakulo Tukumuli told local media on Thursday.

Since Valls arrived in New Caledonia (on his fifth trip since he took office late 2024) this week, he has mentioned the FLNKS issue, saying his door remained “wide open”.

“I am well aware of the FLNKS position. But we have to keep going”, he told the drafting committee on Thursday.

The “drafting” work set in motion will have to focus in formulating, with the help of a team of French officials (legalists and constitutionalists), a series of documents which all trickle down from the Bougival general agreement so as to translate it in relevant and appropriate terms.

Some of the most urgent steps to be taken include formalising the postponement of the provincial elections to mid-2026, in the form of an “organic law”.

Among other things, the “organic law” is supposed to define the way that key powers should be transferred from France to New Caledonia, including following a vote by the local Congress with a required majority of 36 MPs (over two thirds), the rules on the exercise of the power of foreign affairs “while respecting France’s international commitments and fundamental interests”

Tabled in French Parliament
The text would be tabled to the French Parliament for approval, first before the Senate’s Law Committee on 17 September 2025 and then for debate on 23 September 2025. It would also need to follow a similar process before the other Parliament chamber, the National Assembly, before it can be finally endorsed by December 2025.

And before that, the French State Council is also supposed to rule on the conformity of the Constitutional Amendment Bill and whether it can be tabled before a Cabinet meeting on 17 September 2025.

Another crucial text to be drafted is a Constitutional amendment Bill that would modify the description of New Caledonia, wherever it occurs in the French Constitution (mostly in its Title XIII), into the “State of New Caledonia”.

The modification would translate the concepts described in the Bougival Agreement but would not cancel any previous contents from the 1998 Nouméa Accord, especially in relation to its Preamble in terms of “founding principles related to the Kanak identity and (New Caledonia’s) economic and social development”.

In the same spirit, every paragraph of the Nouméa Accord which does not contradict the Bougival text would remain fully valid.

The new Constitutional amendment project is also making provisions for a referendum to be held in New Caledonia no later than 28 February 2026, when the local population will be asked to endorse the Bougival text.

Another relevant instrument to be formulated is the “Fundamental Law” for New Caledonia, to be later endorsed by New Caledonia’s local Congress.

The “Fundamental Law”, a de facto Constitution, is supposed to focus on such notions and definitions as New Caledonia “identity signs” (flag, anthem, motto), a “charter of New Caledonia values, as well as the rules of eligibility to acquire New Caledonia’s nationality and a “Code of Citizenship”.

Valls said he was aware the time frame for all these texts was “constrained”, but that it was a matter of “urgency”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s pro-independence front, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), has formally confirmed its “block rejection” of the French-sponsored Bougival project, signed last month.

The pact has been presented as an agreement between all parties to serve as a guide for the French Pacific territory’s political future.

This follows the FLNKS’s extraordinary congress held at the weekend in Mont-Dore, near Nouméa.

• READ MORE: France’s betrayal of Kanak hopes for independence, Rainbow Warrior, climate crisis and other issues
• New Caledonia’s oldest party for independence rejects ‘Bougival’ deal
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia politics reports

Statements made yesterday confirmed the pro-independence umbrella’s unanimous rejection of the document.

At the weekend congress, FLNKS president Christian Téin (speaking via telephone from mainland France), had called on FLNKS to “clearly and unequivocally” reject the Bougival document.

He said the document demonstrated “the administrating power’s [France] contempt towards our struggle for recognition as the colonised people”.

However, he called on the FLNKS to “remain open to dialogue”, but only focusing on ways to obtain “full sovereignty” after bilateral talks only with the French State, and no longer with the opposing local political parties (who want New Caledonia to remain a part of France).

He mentioned deadlines such as 24 September 2025 and eventually before the end of President Macron’s mandate in April 2027, when French presidential elections are scheduled to take place.

Téin was also part of the August 13 media conference, joining via videoconference, to confirm the FLNKS resolutions made at the weekend.

Apart from reiterating its calendar of events, the FLNKS, in its final document, endorsed the “total and unambiguous rejection” of the French-sponsored document because it was “incompatible” with the right to self-determination and bore a “logic of recolonisation” on the part of France.

The document, labelled “motion of general policy”, also demands that as a result of the rejection of the Bougival document, and since the previous 1998 Nouméa Accord remains in force, provincial elections previously scheduled for no later than November 2025 should now be maintained.

Under the Bougival format, the provincial elections were to be postponed once again to mid-2026.

“This will be a good opportunity to verify the legitimacy of those people who want to discuss the future of the country,” FLNKS member Sylvain Pabouty (head of Dynamique Unitaire Sud-DUS) told reporters.

Five FLNKS negotiators demoted
As for the five negotiators who initially put their signatures on the document on behalf of FLNKS (including chief negotiator and Union Calédonienne chair Emmanuel Tjibaou), they have been de-missioned and their mandate withdrawn.

“Let this be clear to everyone. This is a block rejection of all that is related to the Bougival project,” FLNKS political bureau member and leader of the Labour party Marie-Pierre Goyetche told local reporters.

“Bougival is behind us, end of the story. The fundamental aim is for our country to access full sovereignty and independence through a decolonisation process within the framework of international law, including the right of the peoples for self-determination.”

She said that the FLNKS would refuse to engage in any aspect of the Bougival document.

Part of this further Bougival engagement is a “drafting committee” suggested by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls aimed at coordinating all documents (including necessary bills, legal and constitutional texts) related to the general agreement signed in July.

Anticipating the FLNKS decision, Minister Valls has already announced he will travel to New Caledonia next week to pursue talks and further “clarify” the spirit of the negotiations that led to the signing.

He said he would not give up and that a failure to go along with the agreed document would be “everyone’s failure”.

The Bougival document envisages a path to more autonomy for New Caledonia, including transferring more powers (such as foreign affairs) from France.

It also proposes to augment its status by creating a “state” of New Caledonia and creating dual French/New Caledonia citizenship.

Still want to talk, but with France only
The FLNKS stressed it still wanted to talk to Valls, albeit on their own terms, especially when Valls visits New Caledonia next week.

However, according to the FLNKS motion, this would mean only on one-to-one format (no longer inclusively with the local pro-France parties), with United Nations “technical assistance” and “under the supervision” of the FLNKS president.

The only discussion subjects would then be related to a path to “full sovereignty” and further talks would only take place in New Caledonia.

As for the timeline, the FLNKS motion states that a “Kanaky Agreement” should be signed before September 24, which would open a transitional period to full sovereignty not later than April 2027, in other words “before [French] presidential elections”.

Goyetche also stressed that the FLNKS motion was warning France against “any new attempt to force its way”, as was the case in the days preceding 13 May 2024.

This is when a vote in Parliament to amend the French constitution and change the rules of eligibility for voters at New Caledonia’s local provincial elections triggered deadly and destructive riots that killed 14 people and caused damage worth more than 2 billion euros (NZ$3.8 billion) due to arson and looting.

“It seems as if the French government wants to go through the same hardships again”, Téin was heard saying through his telephone call at the Wednesday conference.

“Don’t make the same mistake again,” Pabouty warned Valls.

In his message posted on social networks on Sunday (August 10), the French minister had blamed those who “refuse the agreement” and who “choose confrontation and let the situation rot”.

Reactivate the mobilisation
At the same media conference yesterday, FLNKS officials also called on “all of pro-independence forces to do all in their power to peacefully stop the [French] state’s agenda as agreed in Bougival”.

The FLNKS text, as released yesterday, also “reaffirms that FLNKS remains the only legitimate representative of the Kanak people, to carry its inalienable right to self-determination”.

FLNKS recent changes
Téin is the leader of the CCAT (field action coordinating cell), a group set up by Union Calédonienne late in 2023 to protest against the proposed French constitutional amendment to alter voters’ rules of eligibility at local elections.

The protests mainly stemmed from the perception that if the new rules were to come into force, the indigenous Kanaks would find themselves a minority in their own country.

Téin was arrested in June 2024 and was charged for a number of crime-related offences, as well as his alleged involvement in the May 2024 riots.

He was released from jail mid-June 2025 pending his trial and under the condition that he does not return to New Caledonia for the time being.

However, from his prison cell in Mulhouse (northeastern France), Téin was elected president of the FLNKS in absentia in late August 2024.

At the same time, CCAT was admitted as one of the new components of FLNKS, just like a number of other organisations such as the trade union USTKE, the Labour party, and other smaller pro-independence movement groups.

Some groups have joined, others have left
Also late August 2024, in a de facto split, the two main moderate pillars of FLNKS — UPM and PALIKA — distanced themselves from the pro-independence UC-dominated platform.

They asked their supporters to stay away from the riot-related violence, which destroyed hundreds of local businesses and cost thousands of jobs.

UPM and PALIKA did not take part in the latest FLNKS meeting at the weekend.

The two moderate pro-independence parties are part of the political groups who also signed the Bougival document and pledged to uphold it, as it is formulated, and keep the “Bougival spirit” in further talks.

The other groups, apart from UPM and PALIKA, are pro-France (Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Calédonie Ensemble, and the Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien.

The FLNKS, even though five of their negotiators had also signed the document, has since denounced them and said their representatives had “no mandate” to do sign up.

Reaction from two main pro-France parties
Pro-France parties had carefully chosen not to comment on the latest FLNKS moves until they were made public. However, the formal rejection was met by a joint communiqué from Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement-LR.

In a long-winded text, the two outspoken pro-France parties “deplored” what they termed “yet another betrayal”.

They confirmed they would meet Valls along Bougival lines when he visits next week and are now calling on a “bipartisan” committee of those supporting the Bougival text, including parties from all sides, as well as members of the civil society and “experts”.

They maintain that the Bougival document is “the only viable way to pull New Caledonia out of the critical situation in which it finds itself” and the “political balances” it contains “cannot be put into question”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A former New Caledonia Congress president says there are “not enough” benefits for Kanaks in a new “draft” agreement he signed alongside pro and anti-independence stakeholders in France last month.

Roch Wamytan said that, after 10 days of deadlock discussions in Paris, he failed to secure the pro-independence mandate.

He told RNZ Pacific that he refused to sign a “final agreement”.

• READ MORE: New Caledonia’s oldest party for independence rejects ‘Bougival’ deal
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia politics

Instead, he said, he opted for a “draft” agreement, which is what he signed. It has been hailed as “historic” by all parties involved.

While France maintains its “neutrality”, Wamytan said that at the negotiating table it was two (France and New Caledonia’s pro-France bloc) against one (pro-Kanaky).

A main point of tension was the electoral law changes, which sparked last year’s civil unrest.

“We call on France to respect the provisions of international law, which remains our main protective shield until the process of decolonisation and emancipation is completed. Hence, our incessant interventions during negotiations on this subject [electoral law changes],” Wamytan told RNZ Pacific.

He said it was difficult to understand whether France wanted to decolonise New Caledonia or not.

Concrete measures
“We have a lot of concrete measures in this proposed agreement, but the main question is a political question. Where are you [France] going with this? Independence or integration with France?”

The document, signed in the city of Bougival, involves a series of measures and recognition by France of New Caledonia as a “State” as well as dual citizenship — French and New Caledonian — provided future New Caledonian citizens are French nationals in the first place.

But this week, New Caledonia’s oldest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), officially rejected the political agreement signed in Paris.

Wamytan maintains New Caledonia is not France. But the French ambassador to the Pacific has previously told RNZ Pacific New Caledonia is France.

However, Sonia Backès, the leader of the Caledonian Republicans Party and the president of the Provincial Assembly of Southern Province, says the agreement signed in France is “final”.

“Roch Wamytan and the pro-independence delegation signed an agreement in Bougival. Since their return to New Caledonia, their political supports have been fiercely critical of the agreement,” her office said via a statement.

“As a result, radical pro-independence leaders like Roch Wamytan have chosen to renege on their commitment and withdraw their signature. This agreement is final; there is no other viable political balance outside of it.”

“We told them that we [didn’t have] the mandate of our parties to sign an agreement, but only a ‘project’ or ‘draft’.

“It was important for us to return with a paper and to show, to explain, to present, to debate, for the debate of our political party. This is the stage where we are at now, but for the moment, we do not agree with that.

“We [tried] to explain to [France and pro-France bloc] that we have a problem [with electoral law change being included].

“This is our problem. So we signed only for one reason . . . that we have to return back home and to explain where we are now, after 10 days of negotiation. [Did we] achieve the objectives, the mandate given by our political parties?”

He said one thing he wanted to make clear was that what he had signed was not definitive and was now up for negotiation.

An FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) Congress meeting is set down for this weekend with the Union Calédonienne Congress meeting held a weekend prior.

Wamytan said that it was now up to the FLNKS members to have their say and decide where to next.

“They will decide if we accept this draft agreement or we reject,” he said.

“We have two options: we accept with certain conditions, for example, on the question of the right to vote on the electoral rule. Or for the question of the trajectory from here to independence, through a referendum or the framework proposed by President Macron.”

“This is an important element to discuss with France, but after this round of discussions.”

He expected further meetings with France after community consultations.

He said after signing the document, President Macron and the pro-France signatories were quick to communicate to the media and their supporters — and the messages filtered to his supporters resulting in anger and frustrations.

He said the anger has mostly been around the signing itself, with people mistaking the draft proposal as final.

“The political, pro-Kanaky party were very, very, very angry against us. We did not communicate and this I think is our problem.”

Bribery allegations
Wamytan has also dismissed unconfirmed reports that negotiators were bribed to sign a historic deal in Paris.

He said he was aware of people “chucking accusations of bribery” around, but said they were false.

“It has never been in the minds of Kanak independence leaders doing such practices,” he said.

“After the signature of the Matignon Accord 37 years ago, with [FLNKS leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou] and with us after the signature of Nouméa accord in 1998, we heard about the same allegation and some rumours like this.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s oldest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has officially rejected a political agreement on the Pacific territory’s political future signed in Paris last month.

The text, bearing the signatures of all of New Caledonia’s political parties represented in the local Congress — a total of 18 leaders, both pro-France and pro-independence — is described as a “project” for an agreement that would shape politics.

Since it was signed in the city of Bougival, west of Paris, on July 12, after 10 days of intense negotiations, it has been dubbed a “bet on trust” and has been described by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls as a commitment from all signing parties to report to their respective bases and explain its contents.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia politics

The Bougival document involves a series of measures and recognition by France of New Caledonia as a “State” which could become empowered with its own international relations and foreign affairs, provided they do not contradict France’s key interests.

It also envisages dual citizenship — French and New Caledonian — provided future New Caledonian citizens are French nationals in the first place.

It also describes a future devolution of stronger powers for each of the three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands), especially in terms of tax collection.

Since it was published, the document, bearing a commitment to defend the text “as is”, was hailed as “innovative” and “historic”.

New Caledonia’s leaders have started to hold regular meetings — sometimes daily — and sessions with their respective supporters and militants, mostly to explain the contents of what they have signed.

The meetings were held by most pro-France parties and within the pro-independence camp, the two main moderate parties, UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) and PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).

Over the past two weeks, all of these parties have strived to defend the agreement, which is sometimes described as a Memorandum of Agreement or a roadmap for future changes in New Caledonia.

Most of the leaders who have inked the text have also held lengthy interviews with local media.

Parties who have unreservedly pledged their support to and signed the Bougival document are:

Pro-France side: Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR, Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien and Calédonie Ensemble

Pro-independence: UNI-FLNKS (which comprises UPM and PALIKA).

But one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — as its main pillar — the Union Calédonienne, has held a series of meetings indicating their resentment at their negotiators for having signed the contested document.

UC held its executive committee on July 21, its steering committee on July 26, and FLNKS convened its political bureau on July 23.

A ‘lure of sovereignty’
All of these meetings concluded with an increasingly clear rejection of the Bougival document.

Speaking at a news conference in Nouméa yesterday, UC leaders made it clear that they “formally reject” the agreement because they regard it as a “lure of sovereignty” and does not guarantee either real sovereignty or political balance.

FLNKS chief negotiator Emmanuel Tjibaou, who is also UC’s chair, told local reporters he understood his signature on the document meant a commitment to return to New Caledonia, explain the text and obtain the approval of the political base.

“I didn’t have a mandate to sign a political agreement, my mandate was to register the talks and bring them back to our people so that a decision can be made . . . it didn’t mean an acceptance on our part,” he said, mentioning it was a “temporary” document subject to further discussions.

Tjibaou said some amendments his delegation had put on the table in Bougival “went missing” in the final text.

‘Bougival, it’s over’
“As far as we’re concerned, Bougival, it’s over”, UC vice-president Mickaël Forrest said.

He said it was now time to move onto a “post-Bougival phase”.

Meanwhile, the FLNKS also consulted its own “constitutionalists” to obtain legal advice and interpretation of the document.

In a release about yesterday’s media conference, UC stated that the Bougival text could not be regarded as a balance between two “visions” for Kanaky New Caledonia, but rather a way of “maintaining New Caledonia as French”.

The text, UC said, had led the political dialogue into a “new impasse” and it left several questions unanswered.

“With the denomination of a ‘State’, a fundamental law (a de facto Constitution), the capacity to self-organise, and international recognition, this document is perceived as a project for an agreement to integrate (New Caledonia) into France under the guise of a decolonisation”.

“The FLNKS has never accepted a status of autonomy within France, but an external decolonisation by means of accession to full sovereignty [which] grants us the right to choose our inter-dependencies,” the media release stated.

The pro-independence party also criticised plans to enlarge the list of people entitled to vote at New Caledonia’s local elections — the very issue that triggered deadly and destructive riots in May 2024.

It is also critical of a proposed mechanism that would require a vote at the Congress with a minimum majority of 64 percent (two thirds) before any future powers can be requested for transfer from France to New Caledonia.

Assuming that current population trends and a fresh system of representation at the Congress will allow more representatives from the Southern province (about three quarters of New Caledonia’s population), UC said “in other words, it would be the non-independence [camp] who will have the power to authorise us — or not — to ask for our sovereignty”.

They party confirmed that it had “formally rejected the Bougival project of agreement as it stands” following a decision made by its steering committee on July 26 “since the fundamentals of our struggle and the principles of decolonisation are not there”.

Negotiators no longer mandated
The decision also means that every member of its negotiating team who signed the document on July 12 is now de facto demoted and no longer mandated by the party until a new negotiating team is appointed, if required.

“Union Calédonienne remains mobilised to arrive at a political agreement that takes into account the achievement of a trajectory towards full sovereignty”.

On Tuesday, FLNKS president Christian Téin, as an invited guest of Corsica’s “Nazione” pro-independence movement, told French media he declared himself “individually against” the Bougival document, adding this was “far from being akin to full sovereignty”.

Téin said that during the days that led to the signing of the document in Bougival “the pressure” exerted on negotiators was “terrible”.

He said the result was that due to “excessive force” applied by “France’s representatives”, the final text’s content “looks like it is the French State and right-wing people who will decide the (indigenous) Kanak people’s future”.

Facing crime-related charges, Téin is awaiting his trial, but was released from jail, under the condition that he does not return to New Caledonia.

The leader of a CCAT (field action coordinating cell) created by Union Calédonienne late in 2023 to protest against a proposed French Constitutional amendment to alter voters’ rules of eligibility at local elections, was jailed for one year in mainland France. However, he was elected president of FLNKS in absentia in late August 2024.

CCAT, meanwhile, was admitted as one of the new components of FLNKS.

In a de facto split, the two main moderate pillars of FLNKS, UPM and PALIKA, at the same time, distanced themselves from the pro-independence UC-dominated platform, opening a rift within the pro-independence umbrella.

The FLNKS is scheduled to hold an extraordinary meeting on August 9 (it was initially scheduled to be held on August 2), to “highlight the prospects of the pursuit of dialogue through a repositioning of the pro-independence movement’s political orientations”.

Valls: ‘I’m not giving up’
Reacting to the latest UC statements, Valls told French media he called on UC to have “a great sense of responsibility”.

“If tomorrow there was to be no agreement, it would mean the future, hope, would be put into question. Investment, including for the nickel mining industry, would no longer be possible.”

“I’m not giving up. Union Calédonienne has chosen to reject, as it stands, the Bougival accord project. I take note of this, but I profoundly regret this position.

“An institutional void would be a disaster for [New Caledonia]. It would be a prolonged uncertainty, the risk of further instability, the return of violence,” he said.

“But my door is not closed and I remain available for dialogue at all times. Impasse is not an option.”

Valls said the Bougival document was “‘neither someone’s victory on another one, nor an imposed text: it was built day after day with partners around the table following months of long discussions.”

In a recent letter specifically sent to Union Calédonienne, the French former Prime Minister suggested the creation of an editorial committee to start drafting future-shaping documents for New Caledonia, such as its “fundamental law”, akin to a Constitution for New Caledonia.

Valls also stressed France’s financial assistance to New Caledonia, which last year totalled around 3 billion euros because of the costs associated to the May 2024 riots.

The riots caused 14 dead, hundreds of injured and an estimated financial cost of more than 2 billion euros (NZ$5.8 billion) in damage.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French President Emmanuel Macron has sent a formal invitation to “all New Caledonia stakeholders” for talks in Paris on the French Pacific territory’s political and economic future to be held on July 2.

The confirmation came on Thursday in the form of a letter sent individually to an undisclosed list of recipients and June 24.

The talks follow a series of roundtables fostered earlier this year by French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

But the latest talks, held in New Caledonia under a so-called “conclave” format, stalled on  May 8.

This was mainly because several main components of the pro-France (anti-independence) parties said the draft agreement proposed by Valls was tantamount to a form of independence, which they reject.

The project implied that New Caledonia’s future political status vis-à-vis France could be an associated independence “within France” with a transfer of key powers (justice, defence, law and order, foreign affairs, currency ), a dual New Caledonia-France citizenship and an international standing.

Instead, the pro-France Rassemblement-LR and Loyalistes suggested another project of “internal federalism” which would give more powers (including on tax matters) to each of the three provinces, a notion often criticised as a de facto partition of New Caledonia.

Local elections issue
In May 2024, on the sensitive issue of eligibility at local elections, deadly riots broke out in New Caledonia, resulting in 14 deaths and more than 2 billion euros (NZ$3.8 billion) in damage.

In his letter, Macron writes that although Valls “managed to restore dialogue…this did not allow reaching an agreement on (New Caledonia’s) institutional future”.

“This is why I decided to host, under my presidency, a summit dedicated to New Caledonia and associating the whole of the territory’s stakeholders”.

Macron also wrote that “beyond institutional topics, I wish that our exchanges can also touch on (New Caledonia’s) economic and societal issues”.

Macron made earlier announcements, including on 10 June 2025, on the margins of the recent UNOC Oceans Summit in Nice (France), when he dedicated a significant part of his speech to Pacific leaders attending a “Pacific-France” summit to the situation in New Caledonia.

“Our exchanges will last as long as it takes so that the heavy topics . . . can be dealt with with all the seriousness they deserve”.

Macron also points out that after New Caledonia’s “crisis” broke out on 13 May 2024, “the tension was too high to allow for a dialogue between all the components of New Caledonia’s society”.

A new deal?
The main political objective of the talks remains to find a comprehensive agreement between all local political stakeholders, in order to arrive at a new agreement that would define the French Pacific territory’s political future and status.

This would then allow to replace the 27-year-old Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998.

That pact put a heavy focus on the notions of “living together” and “common destiny” for New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanaks and all of the other components of its ethnically and culturally diverse society.

It also envisaged an economic “rebalancing” between the Northern and Islands provinces and the more affluent Southern province, where the capital Nouméa is located.

The Nouméa Accord also contained provisions to hold three referendums on self-determination.

The three polls took place in 2018, 2020 and 2021, all of those resulting in a majority of people rejecting independence.

But the last referendum, in December 2021, was largely boycotted by the pro-independence movement.

‘Examine the situation’
According to the Nouméa Accord, after the referendums, political stakeholders were to “examine the situation thus created”, Macron recalled.

But despite several attempts, including under previous governments, to promote political talks, the situation has remained deadlocked and increasingly polarised between the pro-independence and the pro-France camps.

A few days after the May 2024 riots, Macron made a trip to New Caledonia, calling for the situation to be appeased so that talks could resume.

In his June 10 speech to Pacific leaders, Macron also mentioned a “new project” and in relation to the past referendums process, pledged “not to make the same mistakes again”.

He said he believed the referendum, as an instrument, was not necessarily adapted to Melanesian and Kanak cultures.

In practice, the Paris “summit” would also involve French minister for Overseas Manuel Valls.

The list of invited participants would include all parties, pro-independence and pro-France, represented at New Caledonia’s Congress (the local parliament).

But it would also include a number of economic stakeholders, as well as a delegation of Mayors of New Caledonia, as well as representatives of the civil society and NGOs.

Talks could also come in several formats, with the political side being treated separately.

The pro-independence platform FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) has to decide at the weekend whether it will take part in the Paris talks.

Will Christian Téin take part?
During a whirlwind visit to New Caledonia in June 2024, Macron met Christian Téin, the leader of a pro-independence CCAT (Field Action Coordination Cell), created by Union Calédonienne (UC).

Téin was arrested and jailed in mainland France.

In August 2024, while in custody in the Mulhouse prison (northeastern France), he was elected in absentia as president of a UC-dominated FLNKS.

Even though he still faces charges for allegedly being one of the masterminds of the May 2024 riots, Téin was released from jail on June 12 on condition that he does not travel to New Caledonia and reports regularly to French judges.

On the pro-France side, Téin’s release triggered mixed angry reactions.

Other pro-France hard-line components said the Kanak leader’s participation in the Paris talks was simply “unthinkable”.

Pro-independence Tjibaou said Téin’s release was “a sign of appeasement”, but that his participation was probably subject to “conditions”.

“But I’m not the one who makes the invitations,” he told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on 15 June 2025.

FLNKS spokesman Dominique Fochi said in a release Téin’s participation in the talks was earlier declared a prerequisite.

“Now our FLNKS president has been released. He’s the FLNKS boss and we are awaiting his instructions,” Fochi said.

At former roundtables earlier this year, the FLNKS delegation was headed by Union Calédonienne (UC, the main and dominating component of the FLNKS) president Emmanuel Tjibaou.

‘Concluding the decolonisation process’, says Valls
In a press conference on Tuesday in Paris, Valls elaborated some more on the upcoming Paris talks.

“Obviously there will be a sequence of political negotiations which I will lead with all of New Caledonia’s players, that is all groups represented at the Congress. But there will also be an economic and social sequence with economic, social and societal players who will be invited”, Valls said.

During question time at the French National Assembly in Paris on 3 June 2025, Valls said he remained confident that it was “still possible” to reach an agreement and to “reconcile” the “contradictory aspirations” of the pro-independence and pro-France camps.

During the same sitting, pro-France New Caledonia MP Nicolas Metzdorf decried what he termed “France’s lack of ambition” and his camp’s feeling of being “let down”.

The other MP for New Caledonia’s, pro-independence Emmanuel Tjibaou, also took the floor to call on France to “close the colonial chapter” and that France has to “take its part in the conclusion of the emancipation process” of New Caledonia.

“With the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, and the political forces, we will make offers, while concluding the decolonisation process, the self-determination process, while respecting New Caledonians’ words and at the same time not forgetting history, and the past that have led to the disaster of the 1980s and the catastrophe of May 2024,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A Fiji-based advocacy group has condemned the participation of Indonesia in the Melanesian Spearhead Group which is meeting in Suva this week, saying it is a “profound disgrace” that the Indonesian Embassy continues to “operate freely” within the the MSG Secretariat.

“This presence blatantly undermines the core principles of justice and solidarity we claim to uphold as Melanesians,” said We Bleed Black and Red in a social media post.

The group said that as the new MSG chair, the Fiji government could not speak cannot credibly about equity, peace, regional unity, or the Melanesian family “while the very agent of prolonged Melanesian oppression sits at the decision-making table”.

• READ MORE: New era for MSG as Fiji assumes leadership role
• Pro-independence advocates urge MSG to elevate West Papua membership
• Other West Papua reports

The statement said that for more than six decades, the people of West Papua had endured “systemic atrocities from mass killings to environmental devastation — acts that clearly constitute ecocide and gross human rights violations”.

“Indonesia’s track record is not only morally indefensible but also a flagrant breach of numerous international agreements and conventions,” the group said.

“It is time for all Melanesian nations to confront the reality behind the diplomatic facades and development aid.

“No amount of financial incentives or diplomatic charm can erase the undeniable suffering of the West Papuan people.

“We must rise above political appeasement and fulfill our moral and regional duty as one Melanesian family.

“The Pacific cannot claim moral leadership while turning a blind eye and deaf ear to colonial violence on our own shores. Justice delayed is justice denied.”

‘Peaceful, prosperous Melanesia’
Meanwhile, The Fiji Times reports that the 23rd MSG Leaders’ Summit got underway on Monday in Suva, drawing heads of state from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, and representatives from New Caledonia’s FLNKS.

Hosted under the theme “A Peaceful and Prosperous Melanesia,” the summit ended yesterday.

This year’s meeting also marked Fiji’s first time chairing the regional bloc since 1997.

Fiji officially assumed the MSG chairmanship from Vanuatu following a traditional handover ceremony attended by senior officials, observers, and dignitaries at Draiba.

Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape arrived in Suva on Sunday and reaffirmed Papua New Guinea’s commitment to MSG cooperation during today’s plenary session.

He will also take part in high-level talanoa discussions with the Pacific Islands Forum’s Eminent Persons Group, aimed at deepening institutional reform and regional solidarity.

Observers from the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and Indonesia were also present, reflecting ongoing efforts to expand the bloc’s influence on issues like self-determination, regional trade, security, and climate resilience in the Pacific.

After three solid days of talks in retreat mode, New Caledonia’s political parties have yet to reach an agreement on the French Pacific territory’s future status.

The talks, held with French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls and French Prime Minister’s special advisor Eric Thiers, have since Monday moved from Nouméa to a seaside resort in Bourail — on the west coast of the main island, about 200 km from the capital — in what has been labelled a “conclave”, a direct reference to this week’s meeting of Catholic cardinals in Rome to elect a new pope.

However, the Bourail conclave is yet to produce any kind of white smoke, and no one, as yet, claims “Habemus Pactum” to say that an agreement has been reached.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia politics reports

Under heavy security, representatives of both pro-France and pro-independence parties are being kept in isolation and are supposed to stay there until a compromise is found to define New Caledonia’s political future, and an agreement that would later serve as the basis for a pact designed to replace the Nouméa Accord that was signed in 1998.

The talks were supposed to conclude yesterday, but it has been confirmed that the discussions were going to last longer, at least one more day, probably well into the night.

Valls was initially scheduled to fly back to Paris today, but it has also been confirmed that he will stay longer.

Almost one year after civil unrest broke out in New Caledonia on 13 May 2024, leaving 14 dead and causing 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4.2 billion) in damage, the talks involve pro-France Les Loyalistes, Le Rassemblement, Calédonie Ensemble and pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), UNI-PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).

Wallisian ‘third way’
Éveil Océanien, a Wallisian-based party, defends a “neither pro, nor against independence” line — what it calls a “third way”.

The talks, over the past few days, have been described as “tense but respectful”, with some interruptions at times.

The most sensitive issues among the numerous topics covered by the talks on New Caledonia’s future, are reported to be the question of New Caledonia’s future status and relationship to France.

Other sensitive topics include New Caledonia’s future citizenship and the transfer of remaining key powers (defence, law and order, currency, foreign affairs, justice) from Paris to Nouméa.

Valls, who is visiting New Caledonia for the third time since February 2025, said he would stay in New Caledonia “as long as necessary” for an inclusive and comprehensive agreement to be reached.

Earlier this week, Valls also likened the current situation as “walking on a tightrope above embers.”

“The choice is between an agreement and chaos,” he told local media.

Clashing demands
On both sides of the discussion table, local parties have all stated earlier that bearing in mind their respective demands, they were “not ready to sign at all costs.”

The FLNKS is demanding full sovereignty while on the pro-France side, that view is rejected after three referendums were held there between 2018 and 2021 said no to independence.

Valls’s approach was still trying to reconcile those two very antagonistic views, often described as “irreconcilable”.

“But the thread is not broken. Only more time is required”, local media quoted a close source as saying.

Last week, an earlier session of talks in Nouméa had to be interrupted due to severe frictions and disagreement from the pro-France side.

Speaking to public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Sunday, Rassemblement leader Virginie Ruffenach elaborated, saying “there had been profound elements of disagreements on a certain number of words uttered by the minister (Valls)”.

One of the controversial concepts, strongly opposed by the most radical pro-French parties, was a possible transfer of key powers from Paris to Nouméa, as part of a possible agreement.

Loyalists opposed to ‘independence-association’
“In what was advanced, the land of New Caledonia would no longer be a French land”, Ruffenach stressed on Sunday, adding this was “unacceptable” to her camp.

She also said the two main pro-France parties were opposed to any notion of “independence-association”.

“Neither Rassemblement, nor Les Loyalistes will sign for New Caledonia’s independence, let this be very clear.”

The pro-France camp is advocating for increased powers (including on tax matters) for each of the three provinces of New Caledonia, a solution sometimes regarded by critics as a form of partition of the French Pacific territory.

In a media release on Sunday, FLNKS “reaffirmed its . . . ultimate goal was Kanaky (New Caledonia’s) accession to full sovereignty”.

Series of fateful anniversaries
On the general public level, a feeling of high expectations, but also wariness, seems to prevail at the news that discussions were still inconclusive.

In 1988, the Matignon-Oudinot peace talks between pro-independence leader at the time, Jean-Marie Tjibaou and pro-France leader Jacques Lafleur, were also held, in their final stage, in Paris, behind closed doors, under the close supervision of French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

The present crucial talks also coincide with a series of fateful anniversaries in New Caledonia’s recent history — on 5 May 1988, French special forces ended a hostage situation and intervened on Ouvéa Island in the Gossana grotto, where a group of hard-line pro-independent militants had held a group of French gendarmes.

The human toll was heavy: 19 Kanak militants and 2 gendarmes were killed.

On 4 May 1989, one year after the Matignon-Oudinot peace accords were signed, Jean-Marie Tjibaou and his deputy Yeiwene Yeiwene were gunned down by hard-line pro-independence Kanak activist Djubelly Wea.

Valls attended most of these commemoration ceremonies at the weekend.

On 5 May 1998, the 27-year-old Nouméa Accord was signed between New Caledonia’s parties and then French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.

De facto Constitution
The Nouméa pact, which is often regarded as a de facto Constitution, was placing a particular stress on the notions of “re-balancing” economic wealth, a “common destiny” for all ethnic communities “living together” and a gradual transfer of powers from Paris to Nouméa.

The Accord also prescribed that if three self-determination referendums (initially scheduled between 2014 and 2018) had produced three rejections (in the form of “no”), then all political stakeholders were supposed to “meet and examine the situation thus generated”.

The current talks aimed at arriving at a new document, which was destined to replace the Nouméa Accord and bring New Caledonia closer to having its own Constitution.

Valls said he was determined to “finalise New Caledonia’s decolonisation” process.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, who is visiting New Caledonia this week for the third time in two months, has once again called on all parties to live up to their responsibilities in order to make a new political agreement possible.

Failing that, he said a potential civil war was looming.

“We’ll take our responsibilities, on our part, and we will put on the table a project that touches New Caledonia’s society, economic recovery, including nickel, and the future of the younger generation,” he told a panel of French journalists on Sunday.

• READ MORE: Leaked ‘working paper’ on New Caledonia’s political future sparks new concerns
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

He said that he hoped a revised version on a draft document — resulting from his previous visits in the French Pacific territory and new proposals from the French government — there existed a “difficult path” to possibly reconcile radically opposing views expressed so far from the pro-independence parties in New Caledonia and those who want the territory to remain part of France.

The target remains an agreement that would accommodate both “the right and aspiration to self-determination” and “the link with France”.

“If there is no agreement, then economic and political uncertainty can lead to a new disaster, to confrontation and to civil war,” he told reporters.

“That is why I have appealed several times to all political stakeholders, those for and against independence,” he warned.

“Everyone must take a step towards each other. An agreement is indispensable.”

Valls said this week he hoped everyone would “enter a real negotiations phase”.

He said one of the ways to achieve this will be to find “innovative” solutions and “a new way of looking at the future”.

This also included relevant amendments to the French Constitution.

Local parties will not sign any agreement ‘at all costs’
Local parties are not so enthusiastic.

In fact, each camp remains on their guard, in an atmosphere of defiance.

And on both sides, they agree at least on one thing — they will not sign any agreement “at all costs”.

Just like has been the case since talks between Valls and local parties began earlier this year, the two main opposing camps remain adamant on their respective pre-conditions and sometimes demands.

The pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), largely dominated by the Union Calédonienne, held a convention at the weekend to decide on whether they would attend this week’s new round of talks with Valls.

They eventually resolved that they would attend, but have not yet decided to call this “negotiations”, only “discussions”.

They said another decision would be made this Thursday, May 1, after they had examined Valls’s new proposals and documents which the French minister is expected to circulate as soon as he hosts the first meeting tomorrow.

FLNKS reaffirms ‘Kanaky Agreement’ demand
During their weekend convention, the FLNKS reaffirmed their demands for a “Kanaky Agreement” to be signed not later than 24 September 2025, to be followed by a five-year transition period.

The official line was to “maintain the trajectory” to full sovereignty, including in terms of schedule.

On the pro-France side, the main pillar of their stance is the fact that three self-determination referendums have been held between 2018 and 2021, even though the third and last consultation was largely boycotted by the pro-independence camp.

All three referendums resulted in votes rejecting full sovereignty.

One of their most outspoken leaders, Les Loyalistes party and Southern Province President Sonia Backès, told a public rally last week that they had refused another date for yet another referendum.

“A new referendum would mean civil war. And we don’t want to fix the date for civil war. So we don’t want to fix the date for a new referendum,” she said.

However, Backès said they “still want to believe in an agreement”.

“We’re part of all discussions on seeking solutions in a constructive and creative spirit.”

Granting more provincial powers
One of their other proposals was to grant more powers to each of the three provinces of New Caledonia, including on tax collection matters.

“We don’t want differences along ethnic lines. We want the provinces to have more powers so that each of them is responsible for their respective society models.”

Under a draft text leaked last week, any new referendum could only be called by at least three-fifths of the Congress and would no longer pose a “binary” question on yes or no to independence, but would consider endorsing a “project” for New Caledonia’s future society.

Another prominent pro-France leader, MP Nicolas Metzdorf, repeated this weekend he and his supporters “remain mobilised to defend New Caledonia within France”.

“We will not budge,” Metzdorf said.

Despite Valls’s warnings, another scenario could be that New Caledonia’s political stakeholders find it more appealing or convenient to agree on no agreement at all, especially as New Caledonia’s crucial provincial elections are in the pipeline and scheduled for no later than November 30.

Concerns about security
But during the same interview, Valls repeated that he remained concerned that the situation on the ground remained “serious”.

“We are walking on a tightrope above embers”.

He said top of his concerns were New Caledonia’s economic and financial situation, the tense atmosphere, a resurgence in “racism, hatred” as well as a fast-deteriorating public health services situation or the rise in poverty caused by an increasing number of jobless.

“So yes, all these risks are there, and that is why it is everyone’s responsibility to find an agreement. And I will stay as long as needed and I will put all my energy so that an agreement takes place.

“Not for me, for them.”

Valls also recalled that since the riots broke out in May 2024, almost one year ago, French security and law enforcement agencies are still maintaining about 20 squads of French gendarmes (1500 personnel) in the territory.

This is on top of the normal deployment of 550 gendarmes and 680 police officers.

Valls said this was necessary because “any time, it could flare up again”.

Outgoing French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc said in an interview recently that in case of a “new May 13” situation, the pre-positioned forces could ensure law enforcement “for three or four days . . . until reinforcements arrive”.

If fresh violence erupts again, reinforcements could be sent again from mainland France and bring the total number to up to 6000 law enforcement personnel, a number similar to the level deployed in 2024 in the weeks following the riots that killed 14 and caused some 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4.2 billion) in damage.

Carefully chosen words
Valls said earlier in April the main pillars of future negotiations were articulated around the themes of:

• “democracy and the rule of law”;
• a “decolonisation process”;
• the right to self-determination;
• a “fundamental law” that would seal New Caledonia’s future status;
• the powers of New Caledonia’s three provinces; and a future New Caledonia citizenship with the associated definition of who meets the requirements to vote at local elections.

Valls has already travelled to Nouméa twice this year — in February and March.

Since his last visit that ended on April 1, discussions have been maintained in conference mode between local political stakeholders and Valls, and his cabinet, as well as French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s special advisor on New Caledonia, constitutionalist Eric Thiers.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls left New Caledonia at the weekend after a one-week stay which was marked by the resumption of inclusive political talks on the French territory’s future.

He has now submitted a “synthetical” working document to be discussed further and promised he would return later this month.

During his week-long visit, Valls had taken time to meet New Caledonia’s main stakeholders, including political, economic, education, health, and civil society leaders.

• READ MORE: Valls faces Kanak ‘first people’ clash with loyalists over independence talks
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

He has confirmed France’s main pillars for its assistance to New Caledonia, nine months after deadly and destructive riots broke out, leaving 14 dead, several hundred businesses destroyed, and thousands of job losses for a total estimated damage of 2.2 billion euros (NZ$4 billion).

The French aid confirmed so far mainly consisted of a loan of up to 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion) as well as grants to rebuild all damaged schools and some public buildings.

Valls also announced French funding to pay unemployment benefits (which were to expire at the end of this month) were now to be extended until the end of June.

However, the main feature of his stay, widely regarded as the major achievement, was to manage to gather all political tendencies (both pro-independence and those in favour of New Caledonia remaining a part of France) around the same table.

The initial talks were first held at New Caledonia’s Congress on February 24.

Two days later, talks resumed at the French High Commission between Wednesday and Friday last week, in the form of “tripartite” discussions between pro-France, pro-independence local parties and the French State.

As some, especially the pro-independence umbrella FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), insisted that those sessions were “discussions”, not “negotiations”, there was a general feeling that all participants now seemed to recognise the virtues of the exchanges and that they had at least managed to openly and frankly confront their respective views.

Valls, who shared a feeling of relative success in view of what he described as a sense of “historic responsibility” from political stakeholders, even extended his stay by 24 hours.

Speaking at the weekend, he said he had now left all parties with a document that was now supposed to synthesise all views expressed and the main items remaining to be further discussed.

‘A situation no longer sustainable’
“Political deadlocks, economic and social stagnation, violence, fear, and the lack of prospects for the territory’s inhabitants create a situation that is no longer sustainable. Everyone agrees on this observation,” the document states.

A cautiously hopeful Valls said views would continue to be exchanged, sometimes by video conference.

Taking part in the same visit last week was Eric Thiers, a special adviser to French Prime Minister François Bayrou.

Valls also stressed he would return to New Caledonia sometime later this month, maybe March 22-23, depending on how talks and remote exchanges were going to evolve.

In the meantime, the shared document would be subjected to many amendments and suggestions in order to take the shape of a fit-enough basis for a compromise acceptable by all.

The work-in-progress document details a wide range of subjects, such as self-determination, the relationship with France, the transfer of powers, who would be in charge of international relations, independence, a future system of governance (including the organisation of the three provinces), the electoral roll for local elections, the notion of citizenship (with a proposed system of “points-based” accession system), all these under the generic notion of “shared destiny”.

There was also a form of consensus on the fact that if a future text was to be submitted to popular approval by way of a referendum, it should not be based on a binary “yes” or “no” alternative, but on a comprehensive, wide-ranging “project”.

On each of those topics, the draft takes into account the different and sometimes opposing views expressed and enumerates a number of possible options and scenarios.

Based on this draft working document, the next round of talks would lead to a new agreement that is supposed to replace and offer a continuation to the ageing Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 and install a new roadmap for New Caledonia’s future.

As part of discussions, another topic was the future of New Caledonia’s great council of chiefs, the Customary Senate, and possible changes from its until-now consultative status to a more executive role to turn New Caledonia’s legislative system from a Congress-only system to a bicameral one (Congress-Parliament and a chiefly Senate).

Struggling nickel mining industry
The very sensitive question of New Caledonia’s nickel mining industry was also discussed, as the crucial industry, a very significant pillar of the economy, is undergoing its worst crisis.

Since August 2024, one of its three factories and smelters, Koniambo (KNS) in the north of the main island has been mothballed and is still up for sale after its majority stakeholder, Anglo-Swiss Glencore, decided to withdraw after more than a decade of losses (more than 13 billion euros — NZ$24 billion).

Another nickel-producing unit, in the South, Prony, is currently engaged in negotiations with potential investment companies, one South African, one from  the United Arab Emirates and the other Indian.

New Caledonia’s historic nickel miner, Société le Nickel (SLN, a subsidiary of French giant Eramet), is still facing major hurdles to resume operations as it struggles to regain access to its mining sites.

The situation was compounded by a changing competition pattern on the world scale, New Caledonia’s production prices being too high and Indonesia now clearly emerging as a world leader, producing much cheaper first-class nickel and in greater quantities.

‘A new nickel strategy is needed’, Valls says
While political parties involved in the talks (all parties represented at the Congress) remained tight-lipped and media-elusive throughout last week, they recognised a spirit of “constructive talks” with a shared goal of “listening to each other”.

However,  the views remain radically opposed, even irreconcilable — pro-independence supporters’ most clear-cut position (notably that from the Union Calédonienne) consists of a demand for a quick, full independence, with a “Kanaky Accord” to be signed this year, to be followed by a five-year “transition” period.

On the pro-France side, one of the main bones of contention defended by the two main parties (Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement-LR) is to affirm that their determination to maintain New Caledonia as a part of France has been confirmed by three referenda (in 2018, 2020 and 2021) on self-determination.

Pro-independence parties argue, however, that the third and last referendum, in December 2021, was boycotted by the pro-independence movement and that it was not legitimate, even though it was ruled by the courts as valid.

They are also advocating for significant changes to be made in the way the three provinces are managed, a system described as “internal federalism” but decried by opponents as a form of separatism.

In the pro-France camp, the Calédonie Ensemble party holds relatively more open views.

In between are the more moderate pro-independence parties, PALIKA and UMP, which favour of a future status revolving around the notion of “independence in association with France”.

‘At least no one slammed the door’
“At least no one slammed the door and that, already, is a good thing,” said pro-France leader and French MP Nicolas Metzdorf.

“We’re still a long way away from a political compromise, but we have stopped moving further away from it,” he added, giving credit to Vall’s approach.

On his part, Valls stressed that he did not want to rush things in order to “maintain the thread” of talks, but that provincial elections were scheduled to take place no later than 30 October 2025.

“I don’t want to force things, I don’t want to break the thread . . . sometimes, we wanted to rush things, and that’s why it didn’t work,” he elaborated, in a direct reference to numerous and unsuccessful attempts by previous French governments, since 2022, to kick-start the comprehensive talks.

“Some work will be done by video conference. I will always take my responsibilities, because we have to move forward”, Valls told public broadcaster NC la 1ère.

He said France would then return with its proposals and offers.

“And we will take our responsibilities. The debate cannot last for months and months. We respect everyone, but we have to move forward. There is no deadline, but we all know that there are provincial elections.”

Those elections — initially scheduled in May 2024 and then in December 2024 — have already been postponed twice.

They are supposed to elect the members of New Caledonia’s three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands), which in turn makes up the territory’s Congress and the proportional makeup of the government and election of President.

All parties involved will now to consult with their respective supporters to get their go-ahead and a mandate to embark on full negotiations.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Overseas Minister Manuel Valls, who was appointed yesterday as part of the new French government of Prime Minister François Bayrou, intends to tackle New Caledonia’s numerous issues in the spirit of dialogue of former Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard.

Rocard is credited as the main French negotiator in talks between pro-France and pro-independence leaders that led in 1988 to the “Matignon-Oudinot” agreements that put an end to half a decade of quasi-civil war.

At the time 26 years old, Valls was a young adviser in Rocard’s team.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

Valls said Rocard’s dialogue-based approach remained his “political DNA”.

36 years later, now 62, he told French national broadcasters France Inter and Outre-mer la Première that the two priorities were economic recovery (after destructive riots and damage in May 2024, estimated at some 2.2 billion Euros), as well as resuming political dialogue between local antagonistic parties concerning New Caledonia’s political future.

On the economic side, short-lived former Prime Minister Michel Barnier had committed up to one billion Euros in loans for New Caledonia’s recovery.

But France’s Parliament has not yet endorsed its 2025 budget, “which poses a number of problems regarding commitments made by (Barnier).

On the political talks that were expected to start a lead to a comprehensive and inclusive agreement between France, the pro-independence and pro-France camps, Valls said his approach was “dialogue” with the view of “going forward.”

“We don’t have much time (…) We have to find a common path”, he said, adding future political solutions should be “innovative” for the French Pacific archipelago.

Initial schedules for those talks to take place foresaw an agreement to arrive some time at the end of March 2025.

But no talks have started yet.

The Union Calédonienne (UC), one of the main components of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), said nothing could happen until it holds its annual congress, sometime during the “second half of January 2025”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s largest pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has unveiled the main outcome of its congress last weekend, including its plans for the French Pacific territory’s political future.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday in Nouméa, the party’s newly-elected executive bureau, now headed by Emmanuel Tjibaou, debriefed the media about the main resolutions made during its congress.

One of the motions was specifically concerning a timeframe for New Caledonia’s road to independence.

• READ MORE: Mixed reactions to Tjibaou’s election to key Kanak pro-independence party
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

Tjibaou said UC now envisaged that one of the milestones on this road to sovereignty would be the signing of a “Kanaky Agreement”, at the latest on 24 September 2025 — a highly symbolic date as this was the day of France’s annexation of New Caledonia in 1853.

‘Kanaky Agreement’ by 24 September 2025?
This, he said, would mark the beginning of a five-year “transition period” from “2025 to 2030” that would be concluded by New Caledonia becoming fully sovereign under a status yet to be defined.

Several wordings have recently been advanced by stakeholders from around the political spectrum.

Depending on the pro-independence and pro-France sympathies, these have varied from “shared sovereignty”, “independence in partnership”, “independence-association” and, more recently, from the also divided pro-France loyalists camp, an “internal federalism” (Le Rassemblement-LR party) or a “territorial federation” (Les Loyalistes).

Charismatic pro-independence leader Jean-Marie Tjibaou, Emmanuel’s father who was assassinated in 1989, was known for being an advocate of a relativist approach to the term “independence”, to which he usually preferred to adjunct the pragmatic term “inter-dependence”.

Negotiations between all political parties and the French State are expected to begin in the next few weeks.

The talks (between pro-independence, anti-independence parties and the French State) are scheduled in such a way that all parties manage to reach a comprehensive and inclusive political agreement no later than March 2025.

The talks had completely stalled after the pro-indeoendence riots broke out on 13 May 2024.

Over the past three years, following three referendums (2018, 2020, 2021, the latter being strongly challenged by the pro-independence side) on the question of independence (all yielding a majority in favour of New Caledonia remaining part of France), there had been several attempts to hold inclusive talks in order to discuss New Caledonia’s political future.

But UC and other parties (including pro-France and pro-independence) did not manage to sit at the same table.

Speaking to journalists, Emmanuel Tjibaou confirmed that under its new leadership, UC was now willing to return to the negotiating table.

He said “May 13 has stopped our advances in those exchanges” but “now is the time to build the road to full sovereignty”.

Back to the negotiating table
In the footsteps of those expected negotiations, heavy campaigning will follow to prepare for crucial provincial elections to be held no later than November 2025.

The five years of “transition” (2025-2030), would be used to transfer the remaining “regal” powers from France as well as putting in place “a political, financial and international” framework, accompanied by the French State, Tjibaou elaborated.

And after the transitional period, UC’s president said a new phase of talks could start to put in place what he terms “interdependence conventions on some of the ‘regal’ — main — powers” (defence, law and order, foreign affairs, currency).

Tjibaou said this project could resemble a sort of independence in partnership, a “shared sovereignty”, a concept that was strongly suggested early November 2024 by visiting French Senate President Gérard Larcher.

But Tjibaou said there was a difference in the sense that those discussions on sharing would only take place once all the powers have been transferred from France.

“You can only share sovereignty if you have obtained it first”, he told local media.

One of the other resolutions from its congress held last weekend in the small village of Mia (Canala) was to reiterate its call to liberate Christian Téin, appointed president of the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front) in absentia late August, even though he is currently imprisoned in Mulhouse (north-east of France) pending his trial.

Allegations over May riots
He is alleged to have been involved in the organisation of the demonstrations that degenerated into the May 13 riots, arson, looting and a deadly toll of 13 people, several hundred injured and material damage estimated at some 2.2 billion euros (NZ$3.9 billion).

Tjibaou also said that within a currently divided pro-independence movement, he hoped that a reunification process and “clarification” would be possible with other components of FLNKS, namely the Progressist Union in Melanesia (UPM) and the Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA).

Since August 2024, both UPM and PALIKA have de facto withdrawn with FLNKS’s political bureau, saying they no longer recognised themselves in the way the movement had radicalised.

In 1988, after half a decade of a quasi civil war, Jean-Marie Tjibaou signed the Matignon-Oudinot agreements with New Caledonia’s pro-France and anti-independence leader Jacques Lafleur.

The third signatory was the French State.

One year later, in 1989, Tjibaou was shot dead by a hard-line pro-independence militant.

His son Emmanuel was aged 13 at the time.

‘Common destiny’
In 1998, a new agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed, with a focus on increased autonomy, the notions of “common destiny” and a local “citizenship” and a gradual transfer of powers from France.

After the three referendums held between 2018 and 2021, the Nouméa Accord prescribed that if there had been three referendums rejecting independence, then political stakeholders should “meet to examine the situation thus generated”.

On Thursday, Union Calédonienne also stressed that the Nouméa Accord remained the founding document of all future political discussions.

“We are sticking to the Nouméa Accord because it is this document that brings us to the elements of accession to sovereignty”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The election of Emmanuel Tjibaou as the new president of New Caledonia’s main pro-independence party, the Union Calédonienne (UC), has triggered a whole range of political reactions — mostly favourable, some more cautious.

Within the pro-independence camp, the two main moderate parties UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) and PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), have reacted favourably, although they have recently distanced themselves from UC.

UPM leader Victor Tutugoro hailed Tjibaou’s election while pointing out that it was “not easy” . . . “given the difficult circumstances”.

• READ MORE: UN experts ‘alarmed’ by Kanaky New Caledonia deaths
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

“It’s courageous of him to take this responsibility,” he told public broadcaster NC la 1ère.

“He is a man of dialogue, a pragmatic man.”

PALIKA leader Jean-Pierre Djaïwé reacted similarly, saying Tjibaou “is well aware that the present situation is very difficult”.

Both PALIKA and UPM hoped the new UC leadership could have the potential to pave the way for a reconciliation between all members of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which has been experiencing profound differences for the past few years.

‘Real generational change’
On the pro-France (and therefore anti-independence) side, which is also divided, the moderate Calédonie Ensemble’s Philippe Michel saw in this new leadership a “real generational change” and noted that Tjibaou’s “appeasing” style could build new bridges between opposing sides of New Caledonia’s political spectrum.

“We’ll have to leave him some time to put his mark on UC’s operating mode,” Michel said.

“We all have to find our way back towards an agreement.”

Over the past two years, attempts from France to have all parties reach an agreement that could potentially produce a document to succeed the 1998 Nouméa autonomy Accord have failed, partly because of UC’s refusal to attend discussions involving all parties around the same table.

Pro-France Rassemblement-LR President Alcide Ponga said it was a big responsibility Tjibaou had on his shoulders in the coming months.

“Because we have these negotiations coming on how to exit the Nouméa Accord.

“I think it’s good that everyone comes back to the table — this is something New Caledonians are expecting.”

‘Wait and see’
Gil Brial, vice-president of a more radical pro-France Les Loyalistes, had a “wait and see” approach.

“We’re waiting now to see what motions UC has endorsed,” he said.

“Because if it’s returning to negotiations with only one goal, of accessing independence, despite three referendums which rejected independence, it won’t make things any simpler.”

Brial said he was well aware that UC’s newly-elected political bureau now included about half of “moderate” members, and the rest remained more radical.

“We want to see which of these trends will take the lead, who will act as negotiators and for what goal.”

UC has yet to publish the exact content of the motions adopted by its militants following its weekend congress.

Les Loyalistes leader and Southern province President Sonia Backès also reacted to Tjibaou’s election, saying this was “expected”.

Writing on social media, she expressed the hope that under its new leadership, UC would now “constructively return to the negotiating table”.

She said her party’s approach was “wait and see, without any naivety”.

Tjibaou’s first post-election comments
Tjibaou told journalists: “Now we have to pull up our sleeves and also shed some light on what has transpired since the 13 May (insurrection riots).”

He also placed a high priority on the upcoming political talks on New Caledonia’s institutional and political future.

“We still need to map out a framework and scope — what negotiations, what framework, what contents for this new agreement everyone is calling for.

“What we’ll be looking for is an agreement towards full emancipation and sovereignty. Based on this, we’ll have to build.”

He elaborated on Monday by defining UC’s pro-independence intentions as “a basket of negotiations”.

He, like his predecessor Daniel Goa, also placed a strong emphasis on the need for UC to take stock of past shortcomings (especially in relation to the younger generations) in order to “transform and move forward”.

CCAT ‘an important tool’
Asked about his perception of the role a UC-created “field action coordinating cell” (CCAT) has played in the May riots, Tjibaou said this remained “an important tool, especially to mobilise our militants on the ground”.

“But [CCAT] objectives have to be well-defined at all times.

“There is no political motion from UC that condones violence as a means to reach our goals.

“If abuses have been committed, justice will take its course.”

At its latest congress in August 2024 (which both UPM and PALIKA decided not to attend), the FLNKS appointed CCAT leader Christian Téin as its new president.

Téin is in jail in Mulhouse in the north-east of France, following his arrest in June and pending his trial.

In the newly-elected UC political bureau, the UC’s congress, which was held in the small village of Mia (near Canala, East Coast of the main island of Grande Terre) has maintained Téin as the party’s “commissar-general”.

Tjibaou only candidate
Tjibaou was the only candidate for the president’s position.

His election on Sunday comes as UC’s former leader, Daniel Goa, 71, announced last week that he did not intend to seek another mandate, partly for health reasons, after leading the party for the past 12 years.

Goa told militants this was a “heavy burden” his successor would now have to carry.

He also said there was a need to work on political awareness and training for the younger generations.

He said the heavy involvement of the youth in the recent riots, not necessarily within the UC’s political framework, was partly caused by “all these years during which we did not train (UC) political commissioners” on the ground.

He told local media at the weekend this has been “completely neglected”, saying this was his mea culpa.

After the riots started, there was a perception that calls for calm coming from UC and other political parties were no longer heeded and that, somehow, the whole insurrection had got out of control.

The 48-year-old Tjibaou was also elected earlier this year as one of New Caledonia’s two representatives to the French National Assembly (Lower House in the French Parliament).

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French police have shot and killed two men in New Caledonia, stoking tensions with pro-independence groups days ahead of a public holiday marking France’s annexation of the Pacific archipelago.

The pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) decried the deaths yesterday as “barbaric and humiliating methods” used by French police resulting in a “summary execution” and called for an independent investigation.

The shootings bring the number of deaths in the Pacific territory to 13 since unrest began in May over French government changes to a voting law that indigenous Kanak people feared would compromise their push for independence.

• READ MORE: France boosts Pacific security forces as symbolic ‘September 24’ date looms
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

The men were killed in a confrontation between French gendarmerie and Kanak protesters in the tribal village of Saint Louis, a heartland of the independence movement near the capital Nouméa.

Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a media statement the police operation using armoured vehicles was to arrest suspects for attempted murder of officers and for armed robbery on the Saint Louis road, with “nearly 300 shots noted in recent months.”

“The two deceased persons were the subject of a search warrant, among a total of 13 persons implicated, sought and located in the Saint Louis tribe,” Dupas said, adding they had failed to respond to summonses.

Dupas ordered two investigations, one over the attempted murders of police officers and the second into “death without the intention of causing it relating to the use of weapons by the GIGN gendarmerie (elite police tactical unit) and the consequent death of the two persons sought”.

Push back ‘peaceful solution’
Union Calédonienne (UC) secretary-general Dominique Fochi said yesterday the actions of French security forces “only worsen the situation on the ground and push back the prospect of a peaceful solution.”

“The FLNKS denounces the barbaric and humiliating methods used by the police, who did not hesitate to carry out a summary execution of one of the young people in question,” Fochi read from a FLNKS statement at a press conference.

“We demand an immediate de-escalation of military interventions in the south of our country, particularly in Saint Louis, where militarisation and pressure continue on the population, which can only lead to more human drama.”

The statement called for an immediate “independent and impartial investigation to shed light on the circumstances of these assassinations in order to establish responsibilities”.

Prosecutor Dupas said police came under fire from up to five people during the operation in Saint Louis and responded with two shots.

“The first shot from the policeman hit a man, aged 30, positioned as a lone sniper, who was wounded in the right flank. The second shot hit a 29-year-old man in the chest,” Dupas said, adding three rifles and ammunition had been seized.

One of the men died at the scene, while the other escaped and later died after arriving at a local hospital.

Kanaky-Nouvelle-Calédonie : Une colonie française

Samir vous raconte l’histoire de la résistance kanak et vous explique pourquoi la France veut absolument garder la main sur cet archipel !

La vidéo pic.twitter.com/gPCZFmlCGH

— Paroles d’Honneur (@ParolesDHonneur) September 18, 2024

Deaths raise Citizenship Day tensions
The deaths are likely to raise tensions ahead of Citizenship Day on Tuesday, which will mark the 171st anniversary of France’s takeover of New Caledonia.

For many Kanaks, the anniversary is a reminder of France’s brutal colonisation of the archipelago that is located roughly halfway between Australia and Fiji.

Paris has beefed up security ahead of Citizenship Day, with High Commissioner Louis Le Franc saying nearly 7000 French soldiers, police and gendarmes are now in New Caledonia.

“I have requested reinforcements, which have been granted,” he told local station Radio Rythme Bleu last week.

“This has never been seen before, even during the toughest times of the events in 1984 and 1988 — we have never had this,” he said, referring to a Kanak revolt in the 1980s that only ended with the promise of an independence referendum.

Authorities have also imposed a strict curfew from 6 pm to 6 am between September 21-24, restricted alcohol sales, the transport of fuel and possession of firearms.

Kanaks make up about 40 percent of New Caledonia’s 270,000 people but are marginalised in their own land — they have lower incomes and poorer health outcomes than Europeans who make up a third of the population and occupy most positions of power in the territory.

UN decolonisation process
New Caledonia voted by modest majorities to remain part of France in referendums held in 2018 and 2020 under a UN-mandated decolonisation process. Three votes were part of the Noumea Accord to increase Kanaks’ political power following deadly violence in the 1980s.

A contentious final referendum in 2021 was overwhelmingly in favour of continuing with the status quo.

However, supporters of independence have rejected its legitimacy due to very low turnout — it was boycotted by the independence movement — and because it was held during a serious phase of the covid-19 pandemic, which restricted campaigning.

Earlier this year, the president of Union Calédonienne proposed Septemnber 24 as the date by which sovereignty should be declared from France. The party later revised the date to 2025, but the comments underscored how self-determination is firmly in the minds of local independence leaders.

The unrest that erupted in May was the worst outbreak of violence in decades and has left the New Caledonian economy on the brink of collapse, with damages estimated to be at least 1.2 billion euros (US $1.3 billion).

Some 35,000 people are out of a job.

Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Republished with the permission of BenarNews.

Voters in New Caledonia will go to the polls this weekend under tight security, almost eight weeks after destructive and violent unrest broke out in the French Pacific archipelago.

They will vote for their two representatives in the 577-seat French National Assembly, which was dissolved by President Emmanuel Macron just before he — in a surprise move — called snap elections earlier this month.

The previous French general elections took place two years ago.

• READ MORE: Fresh violence flares up in New Caledonia – 35 arrested
• French National Assembly election: What’s at stake and what to expect?
• New Caledonia: France’s way or the Pacific way?
• Other New Caledonia crisis reports

The first round of voting takes place tomorrow and the second one next Sunday, July 7.

Since early May, the unrest has caused nine direct fatalities and the closure, looting and vandalism of several hundred companies and homes. More than 3500 security forces have been dispatched, with the damage now estimated at 1.5 billion euros (NZ$2.64 billion).

Earlier this month, 86.5 percent of New Caledonian voters abstained during the European Parliament elections.

It is anticipated that for these elections, the participation rate could be high.

Both incumbents are on the pro-France (loyalist) side.

On the pro-independence side, internal divisions have resulted in only the hard-line party (part of the FLNKS umbrella, which also includes other moderate parties) managing to field their candidates.

Public meetings and gatherings banned
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc told media he did not want to take chances, even though no party or municipality had openly called for a boycott or any action hostile to the vote.

He said all public meetings would be banned, on top of a dusk-to-dawn curfew and a ban on the sale and transport of firearms, ammunition and alcohol.

“There are 222,900 registered voters for the legislative elections; the voting habits in New Caledonia are that it happens mostly in the morning. So, the peak hours are between 9 am and noon,” Le Franc said.

He said during those peak hours, queues could be expected outside the polling stations, especially in the Greater Nouméa area (including the neighbouring towns of Païta, Dumbéa and Mont-Dore).

“Provision has been made to ensure that voters who go there are not bothered by collective or individual elements who would like to disrupt the exercise of this democratic right.”

Lennon’s ‘Give Peace a Chance’ in class
This week, more public buildings, including schools and fire stations, have been burnt to the ground, and several schools have closed in the wake of the violence.

However, in Dumbéa, Apogoti High School and 13 other schools partly reopened on Friday, with teachers focusing on workshops.

“We met with all the teachers and we decided to mix several subjects,” music teacher Nicolas Le Yannou told public broadcaster NC la 1ère TV.

“We chose a song from John Lennon (‘Give Peace a Chance’) which calls for peace and then we translated the lyrics into Spanish, French and the local Drehu language.

“That allowed everyone to express themselves without having to brood over the difficult situation we have gone through. For us, music was our way to escape,” Le Yannou said.

Psychological assistance and counselling were also provided to students and teachers when required.

On Thursday, a new fire station under construction near Nouméa-La Tontouta Airport, which was scheduled to be opened later this year, was burnt down.

Pro-independence leader’s house destroyed
The home of one moderate pro-independence leader, Victor Tutugoro (president of the Union Progressiste en Mélanésie, PALIKA), was burnt down by rioters on Wednesday morning.

This prompted condemnation from Le France and New Caledonia’s local government, as well as from the president of New Caledonia’s Northern Province, Paul Néaoutyine.

Néaoutyine, who belongs to the Kanak Liberation Party, said several other politicians from the moderate fringe of FLNKS had also been targeted and threatened over the past few weeks.

PALIKA’s political bureau also condemned the attacks and destruction of Tutugoro’s residence.

PALIKA spokesman Charles Washetine called for calm and for all remaining roadblocks to be lifted.

“The right to vote is the fruit of a painful common history which commands us to fight for independence through the ballots and through the belief in intelligence which we have all inherited,” the party said.

The elections coincide with the 36th anniversary of the signing of the Matignon-Oudinot Accord between Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Jacques Lafleur, who were the leaders, respectively, of the pro-independence FLNKS and pro-France RPCR parties.

This year, there was no official commemoration ceremony.

After intense talks with then French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard, they both shook hands on 26 June 1988 to mark the end of half a decade of quasi-civil war in New Caledonia.

One year later, Tjibaou and his deputy, Yéwéné Yéwéné, were gunned down by a member of the radical fringe of the pro-independence movement.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

As New Caledonia passes the one-month mark since violent and deadly clashes erupted on last month, there has been no clear path put forward by Paris as far as the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) is concerned.

Eight people — including the leader of the Field Action Coordinating Cell (CCAT) Christian Téin — were arrested yesterday by New Caledonia’s security forces over the unrest since May 13.

According to the Public Prosecutor’s office, they face several potential charges, including organised destruction of goods and property and incitement of crimes and murders or murder attempts on officers entrusted with public authority.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Listen to the people that were harassed in their houses” – French Ambassador to the Pacific Véronique Roger-Lacan
• New Caledonia police arrest pro-independence leader among 11 people over deadly protests – Al Jazeera
• French police raid pro-independence Kanak party HQ, arrest eight in crackdown
• Nouméa’s Tontouta International Airport reopened after civil unrest
• Other New Caledonia unrest reports

“All the unrest, all the troubles, is the result of the ignorance of the French government,” said New Caledonia territorial government spokesperson Charles Wea.

“We cannot have peace without the independence of the country. New Caledonia will always get into trouble if the case of independence is not taken into consideration,” he said.

But speaking in an exclusive interview with RNZ Pacific, the French Ambassador to the Pacific, Véronique Roger-Lacan, said there were options to resolve the ongoing conflict — but the violence needed to stop first.

Roger-Lacan said there was a national process to address the independence issue — that was through the controversial constitutional changes which has sparked the unrest.

Paris is also engaged with the UN Committee on Decolonisation (C24) where options of self-determination through independence or free association with an independent state are being discussed.

On top of that, Paris has met with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) heads, or troika, over the phone and said talks are underway to either organise a meeting with regional leaders soon, or at the PIF leaders meeting in Tonga in August.

Whatever the option, the FLNKS and the wider pro-independence movement want a robust process that leads to independence, said Wea.

Roger-Lacan said the forces were needed and she rejected claims that the territory was being “militarised”.

She stressed that the thousands of special forces deployed were “necessary” to contain the violence and restore law and order.

Territorial Route 1 has been blocked by barricades erected by the rioters, and Roger-Lacan posed the question: “How do you remove this type of barricade if you have no forces?”

They have called for the immediate withdrawal of the extra forces and a phasing down of security options.

Pacific Conference of Churches general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan told RNZ Pacific France’s heavy deployment of security forces looked like militarisation to him.

“We have seen far too much already these last few weeks to be fooled,” he said.

“We still have militias who are armed, we still have increasing numbers of security forces on the ground. That is militarisation whether it is formal or something that’s been organised in a different way.

“We are just calling it as we see it.

“We’ve also seen the way in which the French government treats that particular area, recognising that this is part of maintaining their colonies as part of the Indo-Pacific strategy, that there is a militarisation movement happening by the French in the Pacific.”

‘Get their facts right’
However, Ambassador Roger-Lacan vehemently disagrees with such claims, saying individuals such as Reverend Bhagwan need to “get their facts right”.

She said claims that the French state had militarised New Caledonia and the region, must be corrected because “it’s not true”.

“First of all, violence had to be stopped, and public order and law enforcement had to be resumed,” she said.

“I would like to suggest for those people [civil society] to watch the houses that were burnt, to listen to the people that were harassed in their houses, to listen to people who were scared of the violence.”

She said such comments were biased, doubling down that “reinforcement was needed”.

Intergenerational trauma
The French Ambassador to the Pacific said concerns that the death toll from the unrest was much higher than reported was also not true.

The death toll stands at eight, she said, adding that three state security officers and five civilians had died.

But some indigenous Kanaks have called for Paris to investigate the death toll, as they believe more young rioters were feared dead.

Roger-Lacan wants worried parents to know France had heard them and concerned parents could call the 24/7 hotline.

“With gendarmes in New Caledonia everywhere, they know all the families, they know all the tribes,” she said.

“It is not true that we don’t have the appropriate links with the whole population.”

Reverend Bhagwan believes it is naive to expect communities to simply trust France given the political history of the territory.

He said there was “intergenerational trauma” simmering under the surface, especially when Kanaks see French forces on their land.

“You can understand then why mothers are concerned about their children, and so to ignore that intergenerational trauma for people in Kanaky, is really a little bit of naivety on the French High Commissioner’s part,” Reverend Bhagwan said.

But one thing all parties agree on is that “force” is not the answer to solve the current crisis.

“Of course, force is not the answer,” Ambassador Roger-Lacan said, but added “force has to be used to bring back public order sometimes”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s security forces have arrested eight people believed to be involved in the organisation of pro-independence-related riots that broke out in the French Pacific territory last month.

The eight include leaders of the so-called Field Action Coordinating Cell (CCAT), a group that was set up by the Union Calédonienne (UC), one of the more radical and largest party making up the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) platform.

The large-scale dawn operation yesterday, mainly conducted by gendarmes at CCAT’s headquarters in downtown Nouméa’s Magenta district, as well as suburban Mont-Dore, is said to be part of a judicial preliminary inquiry into the events of May 13 involving the French anti-terrorist division.

• READ MORE: New Caledonia police arrest pro-independence leader among 11 people over deadly protests – Al Jazeera
• French police raid pro-independence Kanak party HQ, arrest eight in crackdown
• Nouméa’s Tontouta International Airport reopened after civil unrest
• Other New Caledonia unrest reports

The whole area had been cordoned off for the duration of the operation.

Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas said in a media release this inquiry had been launched on May 17.

“It includes potential charges of conspiracy in order to prepare the commission of a crime; organised destruction of goods and property by arson; complicity by way of incitement of crimes and murders or murder attempts on officers entrusted with public authority; and participation in a grouping formed with the aim of preparing acts of violence on persons and property.”

Dupas said that because some of the charges included organised crime, the arrested individuals could be kept in custody for up to 96 hours.

Téin among 8 arrested
CCAT leader Christian Téin was one of the eight arrested leaders.

Dupas said the arrested men had been notified of their fundamental rights, including the right to be assisted by a lawyer, the right to undergo a medical examination, and the right to remain silent during subsequent interviews.

“Investigators and the public prosecution intend to conduct this phase of the inquiry with all the necessary objectivity and impartiality — with the essential objective being seeking truth,” Dupas said.

Dupas pointed out other similar operations were also carried out on Wednesday, including at the headquarters of USTKE union, one of the major components of CCAT.

The arrests come five weeks after pro-independence protests — against a proposed change to the rules of eligibility of voters at local elections — degenerated into violence, looting and arson.

Current estimates are that more than 600 businesses, and about 200 private residences were destroyed, causing more than 7000 employees to lose their jobs for a total cost of more than 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion).

Nine people have been killed during the unrest, mostly Kanaks.

The unrest is believed to be the worst since a quasi civil war erupted in New Caledonia during the second half of the 1980s.

‘Stay calm’ call by the UC
Pro-independence party Union Calédonienne swiftly reacted to the arrests on Wednesday by calling on “all of CCAT’s relays and our young people to stay calm and not to respond to provocation, whether on the ground or on social networks”.

UC, in a media release, said it “denounces” the “abusive arrests” of the CCAT leaders.

“The French State is persisting in its intimidation manoeuvres. Those arrests were predictable,” UC said, and also demanded “immediate explanations”.

UC president Daniel Goa is also calling on the removal of the French representative in New Caledonia, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc.

The Pro-France Loyalistes party leader and New Caledonia’s Southern province President, Sonia Backès, also reacted, but praised the arrests, saying “about time” on social networks.

Another pro-France politician from the same party, Nicolas Metzdorf, recalled that those arrests were needed before “a resumption of talks regarding the future of New Caledonia”.

“But all is not settled; the restoration of law and order, even though it now seems feasible, must continue to intensify.”

At the weekend, a Congress of the FLNKS was postponed, due to persisting differences between the pro-independence umbrella’s components, and the fact that UC had brought several hundred CCAT members to the conference, which local organisers and moderate FLNKS parties perceived as a “security risk”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French police and gendarmes force were deployed around the political headquarters of the pro-independence Caledonian Union in Kanaky New Caledonia’s Nouméa suburb of Magenta in a crackdown today.

The public prosecutor confirmed that eight protesters had been arrested, including the leader of the CCAT action groups, Christian Téin, as suspects in a “criminal conspiracy” investigation, local media report.

Prosecutor Yves Dupas said that the Prosecutor’s Office “intends to conduct this phase of the investigation with all the necessary objectivity and impartiality”.

• READ MORE: Nouméa’s Tontouta International Airport reopened after civil unrest
• Other New Caledonia unrest reports

The arrests were made in Nouméa and in the nearby township of Mont-Dore.

This was part of the investigation opened by the prosecution on May 17 — for days after the rioting and start of unrest in New Caledonia.

The Caledonian Union (UC) is the largest partner in the pro-independence umbrella group FLNKS (Kanak and Social National Liberation Front).

Presidential letter
Meanwhile, RNZ Pacific reports that French President Emmanuel Macron had written to the people of New Caledonia, confirming that he would not convene the Congress (both houses of Parliament) meeting needed to ratify the controversial constitutional electoral amendments.

Local media reports said Macron was also waiting for the “firm and definitive lifting” of all the roadblocks and unreserved condemnation of the violence — and that those who had encouraged unrest would have to answer for their action.

Macron had previously confirmed he had suspended but not withdrawn New Caledonia’s controversial constitutional amendment.

The changes would allow more people to vote with critics fearing it would weaken the indigenous Kanak voice.

In this letter, the President said France remained committed to the reconstruction of the Pacific territory, and called on New Caledonians “not to give in to pressure and disarray but to stand up to rebuild”.

The need for a return to dialogue was mentioned several times.

He wrote that this dialogue should make it possible to define a common “project of society for all New Caledonian citizens”, while respecting their history, their own identity and their aspirations.

This project, based on trust, would recognise the dignity of each person, justice and equality, and would need to provide a future for New Caledonia’s younger generations.

Macron’s letter ended with a handwritten paragraph which read: “I am confident in our ability to find together the path of respect, of shared ambition, of the future.”

‘Financial troubles’
Nicolas Metzdorf, a rightwing candidate for the 2024 snap general election, said he had contacted the President following this letter to tell him that it was “unsuitable given the situation in New Caledonia”.

New Caledonia’s local government Finance Minister Christopher Gygès said the territory was trying to get emergency money from France due to financial troubles.

One of the factors is believed to be the ongoing civil unrest that broke out on May 13, which prevented most of the public sector employees from being able to pay their social contributions.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The national congress of New Caledonia’s pro-independence platform, the FLNKS, was postponed at the weekend due to major differences between its hard-line component and its more moderate parties.

The FLNKS is the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front.

It consists of several pro-independence parties, including the Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA), the Progressist Union in Melanesia (UPM) and the more radical and largest Union Calédonienne (UC).

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia crisis reports

In recent months, following a perceived widening rift between the moderate and hard-line components of the pro-independence umbrella, UC has revived a so-called “Field Action Coordination Cell” (CCAT).

This has been increasingly active from October 2023 and more recently during the series of actions that erupted into roadblocks, riots, looting and arson.

CCAT mainly consists of radical political parties, trade unions within the pro-independence movement.

The 43rd FLNKS congress, in that context, was regarded as “crucial” over several key points.

Stance over unrest
These include the platform’s stance on the ongoing unrest and which action to take next and a response to a call to lift all remaining roadblocks — but also the pro-independence movement’s fielding of candidates to contest the French snap general election to be held on June 30 and July 7.

There are two seats and constituencies for New Caledonia in the French National Assembly.

Organising the 43rd FLNKS Congress, convened in the small village of Netchaot — near the town of Koné north of the main island — was this year the responsibility of moderate PALIKA.

It started to take place on Saturday, June 15, under heavy security from the organisers, who followed a policy of systematic searches of all participants, including party leaders, local media reported.

However, the UC delegation arrived three hours late, around midday.

A meeting of all component party leaders was held for about one hour, behind closed doors, public broadcaster NC la 1ère reported yesterday.

It was later announced that the congress, including a much-awaited debate on sensitive points, would not go on and had been “postponed”.

CCAT militants waiting
The main bone of contention was the fact that a large group of CCAT militants were being kept waiting in their vehicles on the road to the small village, with the hope of being allowed to take part in the FLNKS congress, with the support of UC.

But hosts and organisers made it clear that this was not acceptable and could be seen as an attempt from the radical movement to take over the whole of FLNKS.

They said they had concerns about the security of the whole event if the CCAT’s numerous militants were allowed in.

On Thursday and Friday last week, ahead of the FLNKS gathering, CCAT had organised its own general assembly in the town of Bourail — on the west coast of the main island — with an estimated 300-plus militants in attendance.

Moderate components of the FLNKS and organisers also made clear on Saturday that if and when the postponed congress resumed at another date, all roadblocks still in place throughout New Caledonia should be lifted.

In a separate media release last week, PALIKA had already called on all blockades in New Caledonia to be removed so that freedom of movement could be restored, especially at a time when voters were being called to the polls later this month as part of the French snap general election.

Candidates deadline
As the deadline for lodging candidates expired on Sunday, it was announced that the FLNKS, as an umbrella group, did not field any.

On its part, UC had separately fielded two candidates, Omaira Naisseline and Emmanuel Tjibaou, one for each of the two constituencies.

Earlier this month, UC president Daniel Goa said he was now aimed at proclaiming New Caledonia’s independence on 24 September 2025.

The date coincides with the anniversary of France’s colonisation of New Caledonia on 24 September 1853.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A Pacific regional network has deplored what they call increasing brutality on Kanak youth in Kanaky New Caledonia and the deployment of thousands of troops.

New Caledonia has experienced a wave of violence with Nouméa the scene of riots, blockades, looting and deadly clashes since mid-May.

France has sent armoured vehicles with machine gun capability to New Caledonia to quell violence.

• READ MORE: Emmanuel Macron’s gamble on New Caledonia’s crisis
• Open letter to President Macron: End Kanak vote ‘unfreezing’ and complete decolonisation
• Other New Caledonia crisis reports

In a joint statement, endorsed by more than a dozen groups, including Pacific Elders’ Voice and Pacific Youth Council, the Pacific Network on Globalisation said “liberation” was the answer — not repression.

“The people of Kanaky New Caledonia have spoken, saying yet again, any and all attempts to determine the future relationship between France and the territory, by force, and without its people, will never be accepted,” the PANG statement said.

The group wants Paris to implement an impartial Eminent Persons Group (EPG) to resolve the crisis peacefully.

They also want Paris to withdraw the controversial electoral bill that prompted the violent turn of events in the territory.

‘Only pathway’
“The Pacific groups, and solidarity partners therefore strongly support the affirmation of the FLNKS and other pro-independence groups — that responding to the current crisis in a political and non-repressive, non-violent manner is the only pathway towards a viable solution,” PANG said in a statement.

A week after violence broke out in Kanaky New Caledonia on May 13, President Emmanuel Macron flew to the territory for a day to diffuse tensions.

He promised dialogue would continue, “in view of the current context, we give ourselves a few weeks so as to allow peace to return, dialogue to resume, in view of a comprehensive agreement”.

Following his departure, FLNKS representatives and other pro-independence voices were neither convinced of the effectiveness of his visit nor of the genuineness of his intentions, the PANG statement went on to say.

RNZ Pacific has contacted the French Ambassador for the Pacific, Véronique Roger-Lacan, for comment.

The news service has yet to receive a response.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The unrest that has gripped Kanaky New Caledonia is the direct result of French President Emmanuel Macron’s partisan and stubborn political manoeuvring to derail the process towards self-determination in my homeland.

The deadly riots that erupted two weeks ago in the capital, Nouméa, were sparked by an electoral reform bill voted through in the French National Assembly, in Paris.

Almost 40 years ago, Kanaky New Caledonia made international headlines for similar reasons. The pro-independence and Kanak people have long been calling to settle the colonial situation in Kanaky New Caledonia, once and for all.

• READ MORE: France sends armoured vehicles with machine gun capability to New Caledonia
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

Kanak people make up about 40 percent of the population in New Caledonia, which remains a French territory in the Pacific.

The Kanak independence movement, the Kanak National and Socialist Liberation Front (FLNKS), and its allies have been contesting the controversial electoral bill since it was introduced in the French Senate by the Macron government in April.

Relations between the French government and the FLNKS have been tense since Macron decided to push ahead with the third independence referendum in 2021. Despite the call by pro-independence groups and the Kanak people for it to be deferred due to the covid pandemic and its high death toll.

Ever since, the FLNKS and supporters have contested the political legitimacy of that referendum because the majority of the indigenous and colonised people of Kanaky New Caledonia did not take part in the vote.

Peaceful rallies
Since the electoral reform bill was introduced in the French Senate in April this year, peaceful rallies, demonstrations, marches and sit-ins gathering more than 10,000 people have been held in the city centre of Nouméa and around Kanaky New Caledonia.

But that did not stop the French government pushing ahead with the bill — despite clear signs that it would trigger unrest and violent reactions on the ground.

The tensions and loss of trust in the Macron government by pro-independence groups became more evident when Sonia Backés, an anti-independence leader and president of the Southern province, was appointed as State Secretary in charge of Citizenship in July 2022 and then Nicolas Metzdorf, another anti-independence representative as rapporteur on the proposed electoral reform bill.

Macron can deploy thousands of troops and military arsenals. France will never silence Kanaky aspirations for freedom https://t.co/GJcXFCDvLY

— Jimmy Naouna (@JNaouna) June 3, 2024

This clearly showed the French government was supporting loyalist parties in Kanaky New Caledonia — and that the French State had stepped out of its neutral position as a partner to the Nouméa Accord, and a party to negotiate toward a new political agreement.

Then last late last month, President Macron made the out-of-the blue decision to pay an 18 hour visit to Kanaky New Caledonia, to ease tensions and resume talks with local parties to build a new political agreement.

It was no more than a public relations exercise for his own political gain. Even within his own party, Macron has lost support to take the electoral reform bill through the Congrès de Versailles (a joint session of Parliament) and his handling of the situation in Kanaky New Caledonia is being contested at a national level by political groups, especially as campaigning for the upcoming European elections gathers pace.

Once back in Paris, Macron announced he may consider putting the electoral reform to a national referendum, as provided for under the French constitution; French citizens in France voted to endorse the Nouméa Accord in 1998.

“To me Kanak independence is inevitable” /
“I think France is prolonging the inevitable.” Sir Collin Tukuitonga
New Caledonia’s fires for freedom https://t.co/PB0edo9XWg

— Jimmy Naouna (@JNaouna) May 27, 2024

More pressure on talks
For the FLNKS, this option will only put more pressure on the talks for a new political agreement.

The average French citizen in Paris is not fully aware of the decolonisation process in Kanaky New Caledonia and why the electoral roll has been restricted to Kanaks and “citizens”, as per the Nouméa Accord. They may just vote “yes” on the basis of democratic principles: one man, one vote.

Yet others may vote “no” as to sanction against Macron’s policies and his handling of Kanaky New Caledonia.

Either way, the outcome of a national referendum on the proposed electoral reform bill — without a local consensus — would only trigger more protest and unrest in Kanaky New Caledonia.

After Macron’s visit, the FLNKS issued a statement reaffirming its call for the electoral reform process to be suspended or withdrawn.

It also called for a high-level independent mission to be sent into Kanaky New Caledonia to ease tensions and ensure a more conducive environment for talks to resume towards a new political agreement that sets a definite and clear pathway towards a new — and genuine — referendum on independence for Kanaky New Caledonia.

A peaceful future for all that hopefully will not fall on deaf ears again.

Jimmy Naouna is a member of Kanaky New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS Political Bureau. This article was first published by The Guardian and is republished here with the permission of the author.

Jessie Ounei is following in her mum’s footsteps as a Kanak pro-independence activist.

Last Wednesday, Ounei organised a rally outside the French Embassy in Wellington to “shed light on what is happening in New Caledonia“.

She said there was not enough information, and the information that had been reported in mainstream media was skewed.

• READ MORE: Blood in the Pacific: 30 years on from the Ouvéa Island cave massacre
• Gossanna cave siege tragic tale of betrayal — David Robie
• French repressive policies in New Caledonia have ‘betrayed’ Kanak hopes — David Robie video
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

“It is depicting us as savages, as violent, and not giving proper context to what has actually happened, and what is happening in New Caledonia,” Ounei said.

Her mum, Susanna Ounei, was born in Ouvéa in New Caledonia, and was a founding member of the Kanak independence movement, now the umbrella group FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front).

“Ouvéa is the island where 19 of our fathers, uncles, and brothers were massacred,” Jessie Ounei said.

“And it was actually that massacre that was a catalyst for the Matignon Accords and eventually the Nouméa Accords.”

More power to Kanaks
In 1988, an agreement, the Matignon Accord, between the French and the Kanaks was signed, which proposed a referendum on independence to be held by 1998. Instead, a subsequent agreement, the Nouméa Accord, was signed in 1998, which would give more power to Kanaks over a 20-year transition period, with three independence referenda to be held from 2018.

In 2018, the first of the three referenda were held with 57 percent voting against, and 43 voting for independence from France.

In 2020, there was a slight increase in the “yes” votes with 47 percent voting for, and 53 percent voting against independence.

The third referendum however was mired in controversy and is at the centre of the current political unrest in New Caledonia.

The date for the vote, 12 December 2021, was announced by France without consensus and departed from the two-year gap between the referenda that had been held previously This drew the ire of pro-independence parties.

The parties called for the vote to be delayed by six months saying they were not able to campaign and mobilise voters during the pandemic and appealed for time to observe traditional mourning rites for the 280 Kanak people who died during a covid-19 outbreak.

France refused new referendum
France refused and Kanak leaders called for a boycott of the vote in December which resulted in a record low voter turnout of 44 percent, compared to 86 percent in the previous referendum, and the mostly pro-French voters registering an overwhelming 96 percent vote against New Caledonia becoming an independent country.

Kanak pro-independence parties do not recognise the result of the third referendum, saying a vote on independence could not be held without the participation of the colonised indigenous peoples.

But France and pro-independent French loyalists in New Caledonia insist the vote was held legally and the decision of Kanak people not to participate was their own and therefore the result was legitimate.

Because of this, for the past several years New Caledonia has been stuck in a kind of political limbo with France and the pro-French loyalists in New Caledonia pushing the narrative that the territory has voted “no” to independence three times and therefore must now negotiate a new permanent political status under France.

While on the other hand, pro-independence Kanaks insisting that the Nouméa accord which they interpreted as a pathway to decolonisation had failed and therefore a new pathway to self-determination needs to be negotiated.

Paris has made numerous attempts since 2021 to bring the two diametrically opposed sides in the territory together to decide on a common future but it has all so far been in vain.

New Caledonia’s ‘frozen’ electoral rolls
Despite the political impasse in the territory, France earlier this year proposed a constitutional amendment that would change the electoral roll in the territory sparking large scale protests on the Kanak side which were mirrored by support rallies organised by pro-French settlers.

But what is so controversial about a constitutional amendment?

Under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, voting in provincial elections was restricted to people who had resided in New Caledonia prior to 1998, and their children. The measure was aimed at giving greater representation to the Kanaks who had become a minority population in their own land and to prevent them becoming even more of a minority.

The French government’s proposed constitutional amendment would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia continuously for more than 10 years to vote. It is estimated this would enable a further 25,000 non-indigenous people, most of them pro-French settlers, to vote in local elections which would weaken the indigenous Kanak vote.

Despite multiple protests from indigenous Kanaks, who called on the French government to resolve the political impasse before making any electoral changes, Paris pressed ahead with the proposed legislation passing in both the Senate and the National Assembly.

On Monday 13 May, civil unrest erupted in the capital of Nouméa, with armed clashes between Kanak pro-independence protesters and security forces. Seven people have been killed, including two gendarmes, and hundreds of others have been injured.

Last Wednesday, Jessie Ounei organised a rally outside the French Embassy in Wellington to raise awareness of the violence against Kanak in New Caledonia.

“For decades, the Kanak independence movement has persevered in their pursuit of autonomy and self-determination, only to be met with broken promises and escalating violence orchestrated by the French government,” she said.

‘Time to stand in solidarity’
“It is time to stand in solidarity with the Kanak people and demand an end to this cycle of oppression and injustice.”

Ounei said she was very sad, and very angry, because it could have been prevented.

“This was not something that was a surprise, it was something that was foreseen, and it was warned about,” she said.

Ounei was also born in Ouvéa, and moved to Wellington in 2000 with her mum and her brother, Toui Jymmy Jinsokuna Burēdo Ounei. Susanna Ounei died in 2016, but had never gone back to New Caledonia, because she was disappointed in the direction of the independence movement.

“Ouvéa has a staunch history of taking a stand against French imperialism, colonialism,” Jessie Ounei said.

“I have grown up hearing, seeing and feeling the struggle of our people.”

She said her mum, and a group of activists, were the original people who had reclaimed Kanak identity.

“If I can stand here and say that I’m Kanak, it is because of those people,” she said.

Now Ounei has picked up the baton, and is following in her mum’s footsteps.

She said after spending her entire life watching her mum give herself to the cause, it was important for her to do the same.

“I have two daughters, I have family, if I don’t do this, I don’t know who else will,” she said.

“And I can’t just stand back. It’s not the way that I grew up. My mum wouldn’t have stood back. She never stood back.

“And even though I feel quite under-qualified to be here, I want to honour all the sacrifices that the activists, including my mum, made.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

French President Emmanuel Macron has announced the 12-day state of emergency imposed in New Caledonia on May 15 would not be extended “for the time being”.

The decision not to renew the state of emergency was mainly designed to “allow the components of the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) to hold meetings and to be able to go to the roadblocks and ask for them to be lifted”, Macron said in a media release late yesterday.

The state of emergency officially ended at 5am today (Nouméa time).

• READ MORE: French repressive policies in New Caledonia have ‘betrayed’ Kanak hopes — David Robie video
• Amid Kanaky New Caledonia’s unrest, I saw first-hand the same colonial white privilege that caused it
• West Papua independence group slams French ‘modern-day colonialism’
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

It was imposed after deadly and destructive riots erupted in the French Pacific archipelago with a backdrop of ongoing protests against proposed changes to the French Constitution, that would allow citizens having resided there for at least 10 years to take part in local elections.

Pro-independence parties feared the opening of conditions of eligibility would significantly weaken the indigenous Kanak population’s political representation.

During a 17-hour visit to New Caledonia on Thursday last week, Macron set the lifting of blockades as the precondition to the resumption of “concrete and serious” political talks regarding New Caledonia’s long-term political future.

The talks were needed in order to find a successor agreement, including all parties (pro-independence and “loyalists” or pro-France), to the Nouméa Accord signed in 1998.

Attempts to hold these talks, over the past two-and-a-half years, have so far failed.

House arrests lifted
Not renewing the state of emergency would also put an end to restriction on movements and a number of house arrests placed on several pro-independence radical leaders — including Christian Téin, the leader of a so-called CCAT (Field Action Coordination Committee), close to the more radical fringe of FLNKS.

The CCAT is regarded as the main organiser of the protests which led to ongoing unrest.

In a speech published on social networks on Friday after Macron’s visit, Téin called for the easing of security measures to allow him to speak to militants, but in the same breath he assured supporters the intention was to “remain mobilised and maintain resistance”.

Since they broke out on May 13, the riots have caused seven deaths, hundreds of injuries and estimated damage of almost 1 billion euros (NZ$1.8 billion) to the local economy. Up to 500 companies, business and retail stores had also been looted or destroyed by arson.

Following Macron’s visit last week, a “mission” consisting of three high-level public servants has remained in New Caledonia to foster a resumption of political dialogue between leaders of all parties.

More reinforcements
In the same announcement, the French presidential office said a fresh contingent of “seven additional gendarme mobile forces units, for a total of 480” would be flown to New Caledonia “within the coming hours”.

Macron said this would bring the number of security forces in New Caledonia to 3500.

He once again condemned the blockades and looting, saying “this violence cannot pretend to represent a legitimate political action”.

In parallel to the lifting of the state of emergency, a dusk-to-dawn curfew remained in force.

On the ground, mainly in Nouméa and its outskirts, security operations were ongoing, with several neighbourhoods and main access roads still blocked and controlled by pockets of rioters.

At the weekend, intrusions from groups of rioters forced French forces to evacuate some 30 residents (mostly of European descent) some of whose houses had been set on fire.

La Tontouta airport still closed
Meanwhile, the international Nouméa-La Tontouta airport would remain closed to all commercial flights until June 2, it was announced on Monday. The airport, which remained cut off from the capital Nouméa due to pro-independence roadblocks, has been closed for the past three weeks.

French delegate minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux, who arrived with Macron last week and has remained in New Caledonia since, assured on Sunday the situation in Nouméa and its outskirts was “improving”.

“Police and gendarmes are slowly regaining ground… The (French) state will regain all of these neighbourhoods,” she told France Television.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A West Papuan independence group has condemned French “modern-day colonialism in action” in Kanaky New Caledonia and urged indigenous leaders to “fight on”.

In a statement to the Kanak pro-independence leadership, exiled United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda said the proposed electoral changes being debated in the French Parliament would “fatally damage Kanaky’s right to self-determination”.

He said the ULMWP was following events closely and sent its deepest sympathy and support to the Kanak struggle.

• READ MORE: Man shot dead by police in riot-hit New Caledonia – media
• Open letter from Kanaky: Things are really bad, we need to speed up decolonisation
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia reports

“Never give up. Never surrender. Fight until you are free,” he said.

“Though the journey is long, one day our flags will be raised alongside one another on liberated Melanesian soil, and the people of West Papua and Kanaky will celebrate their independence together.”

Speaking on behalf of the people of West Papua, Wenda said he sent condolences to the families of those whose lives have been lost since the current crisis began — seven people have been killed so far, four of them Kanak.

“This crisis is one chapter in a long occupation and self-determination struggle going back hundreds of years,” Wenda said in his statement.

‘We are standing with you’
“You are not alone — the people of West Papua, Melanesia and the wider Pacific are standing with you.”

“I have always maintained that the Kanak struggle is the West Papuan struggle, and the West Papuan struggle is the Kanak struggle.

“Our bond is special because we share an experience that most colonised nations have already overcome. Colonialism may have ended in Africa and the Caribbean, but in the Pacific it still exists.”

Wenda said he was proud to sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the FLNKS [Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front] in 2022.

“We are one Melanesian family, and I hope all Melanesian leaders will make clear statements of support for the FLNKS’ current struggle against France.

“I also hope that our brothers and sisters across the Pacific — Micronesia and Polynesia included — stand up and show solidarity for Kanaky in their time of need.

“The world is watching. Will the Pacific speak out with one unified voice against modern-day colonialism being inflicted on their neighbours?”

“Only the struggle counts . . .  death is nothing.”  Éloi Machoro — “the Che Guevara of the Pacific” — said this shortly before he was gunned down by a French sniper on 12  January 1985.

Machoro, one of the leaders of the newly-formed FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) — today the main umbrella movement for New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak people — slowly bled to death as the gendarmes moved in.

The assassination is an apt metaphor for what France is doing to the Kanak people of New Caledonia and has been doing to them for 150 years.

• READ MORE: Kanaky New Caledonia unrest: Macron ends day of political talks with both sides
• LISTEN TO RADIO WAATEA: Interview with Jessie Ounei and David Small
• Liberation for New Caledonia’s Kanak people ‘must come’, says media educator — Audio
• ‘You are not alone’ Pacific messages of solidarity for Kanaky
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

As the New Zealand and Australian media fussed and bothered over tourists stranded in New Caledonia over the past week, the Kanaks have been gripped in an existential struggle with a heavyweight European power determined to keep the archipelago firmly under the control of Paris.  We need better, deeper reporting from our media — one that provides history and context.

According to René Guiart, a pro-independence writer, moments before the sniper’s bullets struck, Machoro had emerged from the farmhouse where he and his comrades were surrounded.  I translate:

“I want to speak to the Sous-Prefet! [French administrator],” Machoro shouted. “You don’t have the right to arrest us.  Do you hear? Call the Sous-Prefet!”

The answer came in two bullets. Once dead, Machoro’s comrades inside the house emerged to receive a beating from the gendarmes.  Standing over Machoro’s body, a member of the elite mobile tactical unit said:  “He wanted war, he got it!”

Weeks earlier, New Zealand journalist David Robie had photographed Machoro shortly before he smashed open a ballot box with an axe and burned the ballots inside. “It was,” says Robie, “symbolic of the contempt Kanaks had for what they saw as the French’s manipulated voting system.”

Every year on January 12, the anniversary of Machoro’s killing, people gather at his grave. Engraved in stone are the words: “On tue le révolutionnaire mais on ne tue pas ses idées.” You can kill the revolutionary but you can’t kill his ideas.  Why don’t most Australians and New Zealanders even know his name?

Decades after his death and 17,000 km away, the French are at it again. Their National Assembly has shattered the peace this month with a unilateral move to change voting rights to enfranchise tens of thousands of more recent French settlers and put an end to both consensus building and the indigenous Kanak people’s struggle for self-determination and independence.

Thanks to French immigration policies, Kanaks now number about 40 percent of the registered voters. New Zealand and Australia look the other way — New Caledonia is France’s “zone of interest”.

But what’s not to like about extending voting rights?  Shouldn’t all people who live in the territory enjoy voting rights?

“They have voting rights,” says David Robie, now editor of Asia Pacific Report, “back in France.”  And France, not the Kanaks, control who can enter and stay in the territory.

Back in 1972, French Prime Minister Pierre Messmer argued in a since-leaked memo that if France wanted to maintain control, flooding the territory with white settlers was the only long-term solution to the independence issue.

Robie says the French machinations in Paris — changing the boundaries of citizenship and voting rights – and the ensuing violent reaction, is effectively a return to the 1980s — or worse.

The violence of the 1980s, which included massacres, led to the Matignon Accords of 1988 and the Nouméa Accords of 1998 which restricted the voting to only those who had lived in Kanaky prior to 1998 and their descendents. Pro-independence supporters include many young whites who see their future in the Pacific, not as a white settler colonial outpost of France.

Most whites, however, fear and oppose independence and the loss of privileges it would bring.

After decades of calm and progress, albeit modest, things started to change from 2020 onwards. It was clear to Robie and others that French calculations now saw New Caledonia as too important to lose; it is a kind of giant aircraft carrier in the Pacific from which to project French power. It is also home to the world’s third-largest nickel reserves.

How have the Kanaks benefitted from being a French colony? Kanaks were given citizenship in their own country only after WWII, a century after Paris imposed French rule.   According to historian David Chappell:

“In practice, French colonisation was one of the most extreme cases of native denigration, incarceration and dispossession in Oceania. A frontier of cattle ranches, convict camps, mines and coffee farms moved across the main island of Grande Terre, conquering indigenous resisters and confining them to reserves that amounted to less than 10 percent of the land.”

It was a pattern of behaviour similar to France’s colonies in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean.  Little wonder the people of Niger have recently become the latest to expel them.

Deprived of education — the first Kanak to qualify for university entrance was in the 1960s — socially and economically marginalised, subjected to what historians describe as among the most brutal colonial overlordships in the Pacific, the Kanaks have fought to maintain their languages, their cultures and their identities whilst the whites enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world.

David Robie, author of Blood on Their Banner – Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific, and a sequel, Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, has been warning for years that France is pushing New Caledonia down a slippery slope that could see the country plunge back into chaos.

“There was no consultation — except with the anti-independence groups. Any new constitutional arrangement needs to be based around consensus.  France has now polarised the situation so much that it will be virtually impossible to get consensus.”

Macron also pushed ahead with a 2021 referendum on independence versus remaining a French territory. This was in the face of pleas from the Kanak community to hold off until the covid pandemic that had killed thousands of Kanaks had passed and the traditional mourning period was over.

Macron ignored the request; the Kanak population boycotted the referendum. Despite this, Macron crowed about the anti-independence vote that inevitably followed: “Tonight, France is more beautiful because New Caledonia has decided to stay part of it.”

Having created the problem with actions like the disputed referendum and the current law changes, Macron now condemns today’s violence in New Caledonia.  Éloi Machoro rebukes him from the grave: “Where is the violence, with us or with them?” he asked weeks before his killing. “The aim of the [law changes] is to destroy the Kanak people in their own country.”  That was 1985; as the French say: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose. The more things change, the more they stay the same thing.

French President Emmanuel Macron has ended a meeting-packed whirlwind day in New Caledonia with back-to-back sessions including opposing leaders in the French Pacific territory.

Macron left New Caledonia this morning, leaving some members of his entourage to deal with details in the still-inflamed situation.

After landing there yesterday morning as part of an emergency visit to address the current crisis, the president’s day was busy.

• READ MORE:  Macron says ‘peace, calm and security’ his top priority for New Caledonia
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• Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports

Macron held meeting after meeting first with economic stakeholders, as New Caledonia’s economy faced the bleakest situation in its history, after 11 days of rioting, burning and looting.

He also held meetings with elected members of the local Congress, the territorial assembly, as well as the mayors.

Later in the day, Macron met police and gendarmes and expressed his gratitude and condolences for the loss of two gendarmes killed during the riots.

He confirmed that some 3000 security force officers were stationed in New Caledonia and would stay “as long as it takes” to fully restore law and order.

By the end of Thursday, Macron managed to listen to opposing views from the antagonistic camps, with sometimes divisions seen even within each of the blocks.

Urgent economic measures
Paris will set up a special “solidarity fund” to assist economic recovery, in the face of “colossal” damage caused by more than a week of burning and looting of businesses — about 400 destroyed for an estimated cost bordering 1 billion euros (NZ$1.7 billion).

This would include measures such as emergency assistance to pay salaries, to delay payments and debts, to get insurers to move quickly and for banks to grant zero-interest loans for reconstruction.

Socio-economic roots to disorder
Macron also met groups of young New Caledonians who expressed distress at the lack of perspective they faced regarding their future.

Recognising that the violent unrest and rioting were still ongoing in Nouméa, its outskirts and other parts of New Caledonia, Macron labelled them “multifactor” and “in part, political”.

“They rely on delinquents who have sometimes overwhelmed their order-givers. Then there is this opportunistic delinquency that has aggregated. This has crystallised a political disagreement — and, let’s face it, this question of the electoral roll that was taken separately from everything else.”

As one of the major causes of New Caledonia’s current situation, the French president singled out social inequalities that “have continued to increase . . .  They are in part fuelling the uninhibited racism that has re-emerged over the past 11 days”.

Macron said those politicians, who had recently radicalised their talks and actions, bore an “immense” responsibility.

Distressed youth
“The question now is to restore confidence between all stakeholders, political forces, economic forces … and regain confidence in the future,” he said.

“We are not starting from a blank page. Our foundations are those on which the Nouméa and Matignon Accords [1988 and 1998] have been built.

“But one has to admit that still, today, vision for a common destiny . . .  and the re-balancing has not achieved its goal of reducing economic and social inequalities. On the contrary, they have increased,” Macron said.

“Today, I have met youths of all walks of life and what struck me was that they felt discouraged, afraid, sometimes angry and that they need a vision for the future,” Macron told media.

“Really, it’s now the responsibility of all those in charge to build this path.”

CCAT’s ‘public enemy number one’
On the sensitive political chapter, Macron spent a significant part of his visit to try and bring together political parties for talks.

He managed only in so far as he did meet with pro-independence leaders, even accepting that the controversial CCAT (“field action coordination committee” set up late in 2023 by the Union Calédonienne, one of the main components of the pro-independence FLNKS), be allowed to attend the meeting.

CCAT leader Christian Téin, despite being under house arrest, and regarded by critics as “public enemy number one”, was brought to the meeting — much to the surprise of observers.

Behind closed doors, at the French High Commission in downtown Nouméa, Macron also met pro-France (Loyalist) leaders, but because of their divisions, he had to arrange two separate meetings: one with Le Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes, and another one for Calédonie Ensemble.

But a meeting of all parties together remained elusive and did not take place.

Well into the evening, Macron held a press conference to announce the contents of his exchanges with a wide range of political, but also economic and civil society stakeholders.

Controversial electoral amendment delayed, not withdrawn
Elaborating on the outcomes of the talks he had with political leaders, Macron stressed that he had “made a very clear commitment to ensure that the controversial reform is not rushed by force and that in view of the current context, we give ourselves a few weeks so as to allow peace to return, dialogue to resume, in view of a comprehensive agreement”.

No going back on the third referendum
“I told them the state will be in its role of impartiality,” Macron said, but added that on the third self-determination referendum (held in December 2021 and boycotted by the pro-independence camp): “I will not go back on this.”

On the basis of the third referendum which was part of three consultations — held in 1998, 2020 and 2021 and that all resulted in a majority rejecting independence for New Caledonia — Macron has consistently considered that New Caledonia has chosen to remain French.

But under the 1998 (now almost expired) Nouméa Accord, after those three referenda have been held local political actors have yet to meet to consider “the situation thus created”.

The Accord’s terms were encouraging talks that would produce the much-referred to “local agreement” which would be the basis of the successor pact to the 1998 Accord.

“The political dialogue must resume immediately. I have decided to install a mediating and working mission and in one month, an update will be made,” Macron said, referring to a “comprehensive agreement” from all local parties regarding the future of New Caledonia.

Macron reiterated that he wanted a deal to be reached, which would become part of the French Constitution and automatically replace the controversial constitutional amendment focusing on New Caledonia’s electoral roll changes.

For the local agreement to emerge, Macron also appointed a team of negotiators tasked to assist.

Renewed call for local, comprehensive agreement
“The objective is to reach this comprehensive agreement and that it should cover at least the question of the electoral roll, but also the organisation of power . . .  citizenship, the self-determination vote issue, a new social pact and the way of dealing with inequalities,” he told reporters.

Other short to long-term pressing economic issues such as diversification of the nickel industry, which is undergoing its worst crisis due to the collapse of world nickel prices (-45 percent over the past 12 months), should also be the subject of political talks and be included in the new deal.

“My wish is also that this [local] agreement should be endorsed by the vote of New Caledonians.”

The controversial text still needs to be ratified by the French Parliament’s Congress (the National Assembly and the Senate, in a joint sitting with a required majority of two-thirds). This electoral change is perceived to be one of the main causes of the riots hitting New Caledonia.

Under the amendment there are two sections:

• “Unfreezing” New Caledonia’s eligibility conditions for provincial local elections, to allow everyone residing there for an uninterrupted 10 years to cast their vote, and
• However, it stipulates that if a comprehensive and wider agreement is produced by all politicians, then the whole amendment is deemed null and void, and that the new locally-produced text becomes law and will replace it.

The inclusive agreement has been sought by the French government for the past three years but to date, local parties have not been able to reach such a consensus.

Talks have been held, sometimes between pro-independent and Loyalist (pro-France) parties, but never has it been possible to bring everyone to the same table at the same time, mainly because of internal divisions within each camp.

But while evoking New Caledonia’s future political prospects, Macron stressed the immediate need was for all political stakeholders to “explicitly call for all roadblocks to be lifted in the coming hours”.

“As soon as those withdrawals are effective and observed, then the state of emergency will be lifted too,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates.

Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called “les événements” in New Caledonia, the last time the “French” Pacific territory was engulfed in a political upheaval such as experienced this week.

His memory and legacy as poet, cultural icon and peaceful political agitator live on with the impressive Tjibaou Cultural Centre on the outskirts of the capital Nouméa as a benchmark for how far New Caledonia had progressed in the last 35 years.

• READ MORE: Other Kanaky New Caledonia crisis reports
• Kanaky – put a stop (really) to the time of colonies!
• Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific – David Robie

However, the wave of pro-independence protests that descended into urban rioting this week invoked more than Tjibaou’s memory. Many of the martyrs — such as schoolteacher turned security minister Eloï Machoro, murdered by French snipers during the upheaval of the 1980s — have been remembered and honoured for their exploits over the last few days with countless memes being shared on social media.

Among many memorable quotes by Tjibaou, this one comes to mind:

“White people consider that the Kanaks are part of the fauna, of the local fauna, of the primitive fauna. It’s a bit like rats, ants or mosquitoes,” he once said.

“Non-recognition and absence of cultural dialogue can only lead to suicide or revolt.”

And that is exactly what has come to pass this week in spite of all the warnings in recent years and months. A revolt.

Among the warnings were one by me in December 2021 after a failed third and “final” independence referendum. I wrote at the time about the French betrayal:

“After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Nouméa Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice.”

As Paris once again reacts with a heavy-handed security crackdown, it appears to have not learned from history. It will never stifle the desire for independence by colonised peoples.

New Caledonia was annexed as a colony in 1853 and was a penal colony for convicts and political prisoners — mainly from Algeria — for much of the 19th century before gaining a degree of autonomy in 1946.

Here are my five takeaways from this week’s violence and frustration:

1. Global failure of neocolonialism – Palestine, Kanaky and West Papua
Just as we have witnessed a massive outpouring of protest on global streets for justice, self-determination and freedom for the people of Palestine as they struggle for independence after 76 years of Israeli settler colonialism, and also Melanesian West Papuans fighting for 61 years against Indonesian settler colonialism, Kanak independence aspirations are back on the world stage.

Neocolonialism has failed. French President Emmanuel Macron’s attempt to reverse the progress towards decolonisation over the past three decades has backfired in his face.

2. French deafness and loss of social capital
The predictions were already long there. Failure to listen to the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) leadership and to be prepared to be patient and negotiate towards a consensus has meant much of the crosscultural goodwill that been developed in the wake of the Nouméa Accord of 1998 has disappeared in a puff of smoke from the protest fires of the capital.

The immediate problem lies in the way the French government has railroaded the indigenous Kanak people who make up 42 percent of the 270,000 population into a constitutional bill that “unfreezes” the electoral roll pegging voters to those living in New Caledonia at the time of the 1998 Nouméa Accord. Under the draft bill all those living in the territory for the past 10 years could vote.

This would add some 25,000 extra French voters in local elections, which would further marginalise Kanaks at a time when they hold the territorial presidency and a majority in the Congress in spite of their demographic disadvantage.

Under the Nouméa Accord, there was provision for three referendums on independence in 2018, 2020 and 2021. The first two recorded narrow (and reducing) votes against independence, but the third was effectively boycotted by Kanaks because they had suffered so severely in the 2021 delta covid pandemic and needed a year to mourn culturally.

The FLNKS and the groups called for a further referendum but the Macron administration and a court refused.

3. Devastating economic and social loss
New Caledonia was already struggling economically with the nickel mining industry in crisis – the territory is the world’s third-largest producer. And now four days of rioting and protesting have left a trail of devastation in their wake.

At least five people have died in the rioting — three Kanaks, and two French police, apparently as a result of a barracks accident. A state of emergency was declared for at least 12 days.

But as economists and officials consider the dire consequences of the unrest, it will take many years to recover. According to Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) president David Guyenne, between 80 and 90 percent of the grocery distribution network in Nouméa had been “wiped out”. The chamber estimated damage at about 200 million euros (NZ$350 million).

4. A new generation of youth leadership
As we have seen with Generation Z in the forefront of stunning pro-Palestinian protests across more than 50 universities in the United States (and in many other countries as well, notably France, Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands and the United Kingdom), and a youthful generation of journalists in Gaza bearing witness to Israeli atrocities, youth has played a critical role in the Kanaky insurrection.

Australian peace studies professor Dr Nicole George notes that “the highly visible wealth disparities” in the territory “fuel resentment and the profound racial inequalities that deprive Kanak youths of opportunity and contribute to their alienation”.

A feature is the “unpredictability” of the current crisis compared with the 1980s “les événements”.

“In the 1980s, violent campaigns were coordinated by Kanak leaders . . . They were organised. They were controlled.

“In contrast, today it is the youth taking the lead and using violence because they feel they have no other choice. There is no coordination. They are acting through frustration and because they feel they have ‘no other means’ to be recognised.”

According to another academic, Dr Évelyne Barthou, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Pau, who researched Kanak youth in a field study last year: “Many young people see opportunities slipping away from them to people from mainland France.

“This is just one example of the neocolonial logic to which New Caledonia remains prone today.”

5. Policy rethink needed by Australia, New Zealand
Ironically, as the turbulence struck across New Caledonia this week, especially the white enclave of Nouméa, a whistlestop four-country New Zealand tour of Melanesia headed by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who also has the foreign affairs portfolio, was underway.

The first casualty of this tour was the scheduled visit to New Caledonia and photo ops demonstrating the limited diversity of the political entourage showed how out of depth New Zealand’s Pacific diplomacy had become with the current rightwing coalition government at the helm.

Heading home, Peters thanked the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and Tuvalu for “working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous and more resilient tomorrow”.

The delegation is now heading home

Many thanks to the people and governments of Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu & Tuvalu for their kind hospitality – and for working with New Zealand towards a more secure, more prosperous & more resilient tomorrow.

pic.twitter.com/ZciN70cNP6

— Winston Peters (@NewZealandMFA) May 16, 2024

His tweet came as New Caledonian officials and politicians were coming to terms with at least five deaths and the sheer scale of devastation in the capital which will rock New Caledonia for years to come.

News media in both Australia and New Zealand hardly covered themselves in glory either, with the commercial media either treating the crisis through the prism of “threats” to tourists or a superficial brush over the issues. Only the public media did a creditable job, New Zealand’s RNZ Pacific and Australia’s ABC Pacific and SBS.

In the case of New Zealand’s largest daily newspaper, The New Zealand Herald, it barely noticed the crisis. On Wednesday morning there was not a word in the paper.

Thursday was not much better, with an “afterthought” report provided by a partnership with RNZ. As I reported it:

“Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest newspaper, the New Zealand Herald, finally catches up with the Pacific’s biggest news story after three days of crisis — the independence insurrection in #KanakyNewCaledonia.

“But unlike global news services such as Al Jazeera, which have featured it as headline news, the Herald tucked it at the bottom of page 2. Even then it wasn’t its own story, it was relying on a partnership report from RNZ.”

New Zealand Herald finally catches up with the Pacific’s biggest news story after 3 days of crisis #CafePacific #kanaky #newcaledonia #nzherald #media #insurrection #stateofemergency #franceinpacific @KanakySuport @cpcflnkspt @westpapuamedia @anaisduongp https://t.co/TZZ2JDE6nr pic.twitter.com/52bJDECU2g

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) May 16, 2024

Also, New Zealand media reports largely focused too heavily on the “frustrations and fears” of more than 219 tourists and residents registered in the territory this week, and provided very slim coverage of the core issues of the upheaval.

With all the warning signs in the Pacific over recent years — a series of riots in New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Timor-Leste, Tonga and Vanuatu — Australia and New Zealand need to wake up to the yawning gap in social indicators between the affluent and the impoverished, and the worsening climate crisis.

These are the real issues of the Pacific, not some fantasy about AUKUS and a perceived China threat in an unconvincing arena called “Indo-Pacific”.

Dr David Robie covered “Les Événements” in New Caledonia in the 1980s and penned the book Blood on their Banner about the turmoil. He also covered the 2018 independence referendum.

French authorities have imposed a curfew on New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa and banned public gatherings after supporters of the Pacific territory’s independence movement blocked roads, set fire to buildings and clashed with security forces.

Tensions in New Caledonia have been inflamed by French government’s plans to give the vote to tens of thousands of French immigrants to the Melanesian island chain.

The enfranchisement would create a significant obstacle to the self-determination aspirations of the indigenous Kanak people.

• READ MORE:  ‘A lot of fire, violence’: Nouméa erupts as protests halt New Caledonia
• NZ foreign minister Peters cancels New Caledonia visit as unrest erupts
• Botched prison mutiny, protests ahead of New Caledonia constitution vote
• Other New Caledonia reports

“Very intense public order disturbances took place last night in Noumea and in neighboring towns, and are still ongoing at this time,” French High Commissioner to New Caledonia Louis Le Franc said in a statement today.

About 36 people were arrested and numerous police were injured, the statement said.

French control of New Caledonia and its surrounding islands gives the European nation a security and diplomatic role in the Pacific at a time when the US, Australia and other Western countries are pushing back against China’s inroads in the region.

Kanaks make up about 40 percent of New Caledonia’s 270,000 people but are marginalised in their own land — they have lower incomes and poorer health than Europeans who make up a third of the population and predominate positions of power in the territory.

Buildings, cars set ablaze
Video and photos posted online showed buildings set ablaze, burned out vehicles at luxury car dealerships and security forces using tear gas to confront groups of protestors waving Kanaky flags and throwing petrol bombs at city intersections in the worst rioting in decades.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was imposed today and could be renewed as long as necessary, the high commissioner’s statement said.

Public gatherings in greater Noumea are banned and the sale of alcohol and carrying or transport of weapons is prohibited throughout New Caledonia.

The violence erupted as the National Assembly, the lower house of France’s Parliament, debated a constitutional amendment to “unfreeze” the electoral roll, which would enfranchise relative newcomers to New Caledonia.

It is scheduled to vote on the measure this afternoon in Paris. The French Senate approved the amendment in April.

Local Congress opposes amendment
New Caledonia’s territorial Congress, where pro-independence groups have a majority, on Monday passed a resolution that called for France to withdraw the amendment.

It said political consensus has “historically served as a bulwark against intercommunity tensions and violence” in New Caledonia.

“Any unilateral decision taken without prior consultation of New Caledonian political leaders could compromise the stability of New Caledonia,” the resolution said.

L’Eau vive semble aux mains des manifestants pic.twitter.com/6qAuW4hMYI

— Charlotte Mannevy (@CMannevy) May 13, 2024

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told his country’s legislature that about 42,000 people — about one in five possible voters in New Caledonia — are denied the right to vote under the 1998 Noumea Accord between France and the independence movement that froze the electoral roll.

“Democracy means voting,” he said.

New Caledonia’s pro-independence government — the first in its history — could lose power in elections due in December if the electoral roll is enlarged.

New Caledonia voted by small majorities to remain part of France in referendums held in 2018 and 2020 under a UN-mandated decolonisation process. Three ballots were organised as part of the Noumea Accord to increase Kanaks’ political power following deadly violence in the 1980s.

Referendum legitimacy rejected
A contentious final referendum in 2022 was overwhelmingly in favour of continuing with the status quo. However, supporters of independence have rejected its legitimacy due to very low turnout — it was boycotted by the independence movement — and because it was held during a serious phase of the covid-19 pandemic, which restricted campaigning.

Representatives of the FLNKS (Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialist) independence movement did not respond to interview requests.

“When there’s no hope in front of us, we will fight, we will struggle. We’ll make sure you understand what we are talking about,” Patricia Goa, a New Caledonian politician said in an interview last month with Australian public broadcaster ABC.

“Things can go wrong and our past shows that,” she said.

Confrontations between protesters and security forces are continuing in Noumea.

Darmanin has ordered reinforcements be sent to New Caledonia, including hundreds of police, urban violence special forces and elite tactical units.

Copyright ©2015-2024, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews.

New Caledonia has gone through yet another day of tense political protests and a failed prison mutiny — a few hours ahead of a vote in Paris’s National Assembly on a government-tabled Constitutional amendment.

This amendment would “unfreeze” the list of eligible voters at local elections.

Demonstrations, marches and confrontations with security forces spread throughout the French Pacific territory yesterday, with flash points in the suburbs of the capital Nouméa, especially the villages of Saint Louis and nearby Mont-Dore.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia reports

Several vehicles were burned on the roads.

By last evening, several violent confrontations were still taking place between pro-independence militants and police.

At Nouméa’s central prison, Camp Est, three penitentiary staff were briefly taken hostage by inmates, as part of a botched mutiny within the jail.

The hostages were later released.

Public services and schools in the affected areas announced they were sending staff and students home yesterday, and that they would remain closed for the next few days.

Marches were organised by a pro-independence “field action coordination committee” (CCAT) close to the Union Calédonienne party (UC), one of the main components of the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).

CCAT said in a release this was “stage two and a half” (out of three stages) of its mobilisation.

It involved marches in New Caledonia’s Loyalty Islands group, including Lifou, where at least 1000 people were estimated to have taken part in demonstrations.

French High commissioner’s warning
French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc announced through the public broadcaster La Première that he had called for reinforcements from Paris to maintain law and order.

This included police, gendarmes and members of the SWAT group GIGN (Gendarmerie National Intervention Group) and RAID.

Law enforcement officers were injured by stones and shots were fired from within Saint Louis on Monday, he said.

He said some of the weapons used by “youth” were high calibre hunting guns.

Le Franc also warned if, in future, law enforcement officers were targeted again, they would consider themselves in a situation of “legitimate defence” and would retaliate.

“So I’m warning these young people . . .  They should stop using weapons against gendarmes,” he said.

“I don’t want to see dead people in New Caledonia, but everyone should take their responsibility.

“I have also asked the custom chiefs [of Saint Louis] to do their job. They have an influence over these young people; they should restore calm.”

He told journalists most delinquents seemed to be under the influence of alcohol.

Le Franc also announced for the next 48 hours he had placed a ban on port and transport of weapons and ammunition, as well as another ban on the sale of liquor.

“Thirty-five gendarmes have been injured [on Monday] by stones and gunshots of large calibre, semi-automatic hunting guns. These are about 200 aggressive youths,” he told the public media.

While appealing for calm and respect for public order, he also strongly condemned the blockades and said the police and gendarmes’ first mission was to restore freedom of movement at blockades.

About 15 people were arrested yesterday, he said.

Macron to invite leaders for talks
In an apparent wish to give more time for a local, inclusive agreement to take place, French President Emmanuel Macron’s entourage told French media at the weekend he would not convene the French Congress (a special gathering of both Houses of Parliament) for “several weeks”.

The French President’s office was also ready to call on all of New Caledonia’s political parties (both pro-France and pro-independence) for a roundtable in Paris by the end of May, in order to find an agreement on New Caledonia’s long-term political future.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The signing of a controversial memorandum of cooperation between New Caledonia’s Congress and the National Assembly of Azerbaijan has fuelled more tension — and demands from anti-independence parties that the deal be scrapped altogether.

The memorandum was signed on New Caledonia’s part by one pro-independence member of the Congress, Omayra Naisseline, on behalf of Congress Chair Roch Wamytan, and by Azerbaijan’s Milli Mejtis, the National Assembly Chair Sahibé Gafarova.

It was presented as paving the way for “interparliamentary cooperation and strengthening friendly ties between the peoples of Azerbaijan and New Caledonia”.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia politics reports

Speaking to Azeri media after the signing, Naisseline officially thanked the Bakou Initiative Group, the non-aligned movement, for their “support to the struggle of the Kanak people”.

She said the agreement would cover such topics as “youth, culture, economics, environment and politics”.

During the official signing of the document on April 18, Azerbaijan’s flag was placed on a desk near the Kanak flag which represents New Caledonia’s pro-independence movement.

Pro-France parties were up in arms upon learning of the signing leading to Congress Chairman and pro-independence leader Wamytan held a media conference on Tuesday.

The “Bakou Initiative Group Against French Colonialism” was set up in July 2023, on the margins of a meeting of the non-aligned movement held at the time in the Azerbaijan capital.

Wamytan said the travel expenses were taken care of by the host country, and that Naisseline travelled there in her capacity as FLNKS representative.

But referring to New Caledonia’s current tense negotiations on its political future status and a French move to modify voters eligibility at New Caledonia’s local polls, Wamytan also said on Tuesday that “we need to find external backing since (French) President Macron is no longer impartial”.

“Azerbaijan has shown it has the capacity to help the (pro-independence) FLNKS, and those countries that help us can take initiatives vis-à-vis France, and this is what we need so that our voice can be heard,” he said, referring to New Caledonia’s indigenous Kanak people’s right to self-determination.

Both Wamytan and Naisseline belong to the Union Calédonienne (UC), a major component of the pro-independence front FLNKS.

Other FLNKS components such as the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and the UPM (Union of Melanesian Parties) have yet to comment on the fresh controversy.

‘Inappropriate’ and ‘shameful’
This has since prompted an open row between pro-France parties within the Congress, who are denouncing the move as “inappropriate” and “shameful”.

Les Loyalistes Congress caucus head Françoise Suvé told local media: “For Omayra Naisseline to go there and claim that she is representing the people of New Caledonia and its Congress is just unacceptable.”

Pro-France Calédonie Ensemble MP, Philippe Dunoyer said this was shameful.

“There is a confusion, an instrumentalisation and behind all this, a political will.

“If the FLNKS wants to travel there, it has the right to do so, but not the Congress.”

It is also understood that Nicolas Metzdorf, another pro-French MP who is New Caledonia’s representative at the French National Assembly, officially wrote last week to French Foreign Affairs Minister Sébastien Séjourné, asking France to provide a “strong diplomatic response” in reaction to “Azerbaijan’s flagrant interference”.

Relations between Paris and Bakou have been particularly tense over the past months.

In December 2023, a journalist from that country was denied entry and later deported on her arrival at Nouméa-La Tontouta international airport.

She claimed to be there to cover the French-hosted South Pacific defence ministers’ meeting in Nouméa, where hard-line members of the FLNKS were also holding protest marches against alleged French “re-militarisation” in New Caledonia.

In a joint release on Tuesday, pro-France parties Les Loyalistes and Rassemblement said New Caledonia’s Congress (including their MPs) were at no stage informed or consulted on this memorandum.

They said Naisseline had never been given the Congress’s endorsement to sign such a document on behalf of the Congress.

“In keeping with the Nouméa Accord which you signed (in 1998), local political institutions do not have powers in terms of international relations outside the Pacific region,”, the release added.

‘Shared powers’
Under the current Nouméa framework Accord (1998), which has been initiating a process of gradual transfer of powers from France to New Caledonia, the notion of “shared powers” applies to “international and regional relations”.

“International relations remain the responsibility of the [French] state, which will) take New Caledonia’s specific interests into account in international relations conducted by France and will associate [New Caledonia] to the discussions,” it says.

“New Caledonia may have representations in Pacific countries (and may) enter into agreements with these countries within its areas of responsibility.”

The pro-France parties also claim in the same document that the document signed with Azerbaijan “solely serves the aims of the pro-independence movement which is now becoming an instrument of Bakou regime’s will to destabilise France”.

“New Caledonia’s Congress cannot be seen as a partisan instrument serving foreign powers confronting France.”

They are calling for a Congress extraordinary sitting so that the accord with Azerbaijan can be declared “null and void”.

They also denounced the signing with “a country that is guilty of horrible crimes against its own population”.

Meanwhile, they have officially lodged a legal complaint for possible “misuse of public funds” associated with the trip to Azerbaijan.

The French High Commissioner in New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc, has indicated he would also challenge the legality of such a document.

Wamytan told media on Tuesday he would not nullify the pact with Azerbaijan “unless a court ruling compels [him] to do so”.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

A pro-independence activist in New Caledonia is warning France to immediately halt its planned constitution amendments or face “war”.

The call for a u-turn follows proposed constitutional changes to voting rights which could push the number of eligible anti-independence voters up.

Pacific Independence Movement (le Mouvement des Océaniens indépendantistes) spokesperson Arnaud Chollet-Léakava was one of the thousands who took to the streets in Nouméa in protest last Saturday.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC WAVES: Lydia Lewis reports from Kanaky New Caledonia
• New Caledonia: Flags and emotions flying high over proposed changes
• Other Kanaky New Caledonia protest reports

He told RNZ Pacific that tensions were high.

“We are here to tell them we must not make this mistake,” Chollet-Léakava said.

“Step by step, I think there will be war.”

A nearby counter-protest in Nouméa also had a large turnout.

People there wore the French flag, a contrast to the sea of blue, red, green and yellow representing the Kanak flag at the pro-independence rally.

Solange Ponija was one of thousands at the pro-independence rally in Nouméa.

She said the constitutional change — if pushed through — would tip the balance of voting power onto the French side, she said.

Marseillaise du pacifique pic.twitter.com/OhuLO0AnHp

— Nicolas Metzdorf (@NicolasMetzdorf) April 13, 2024

She feared the indigenous people of New Caledonia — the Kanak people — would lose in their fight for independence:

“They want to make us a minority . . .  it will make us a minority!

“The law will make the Kanaky people a minority because it will open the electoral body to other people who are not Kanaky and who will give their opinion on the accession of Caledonia to full sovereignty,” Ponija said.

‘Heading towards a civil war’
A French man who has lived in New Caledonia for two decades said independence or not, he just wanted peace.

The man — who wanted to remain anonymous out of fear of retribution — said he moved to New Caledonia knowing he would be living on colonised land.

Having experienced violence in 2019, the man begged both sides to be amicable.

“[It’s] very complicated and very serious because if the law is not withdrawn and passed. We are clearly heading towards a civil war,” he said.

“We hope for peace and we hope that we find a common agreement for both parties.

“People want peace and we don’t want to move towards war.”

The constitutional bill was endorsed by the French Senate on April 2.

The next stage is for the bill to be debated, which has been set down for May 13.

Then both the Senate and the National Assembly will gather in June to give the final stamp of approval.

This would allow any citizen who has lived in New Caledonia for at least 10 years to cast their vote at local elections.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

New Caledonia’s capital was on Saturday flooded by two simultaneous waves of French and Kanaky flags with two rival demonstrations in downtown Nouméa, only two streets away from each other and under heavy security surveillance.

The French High Commission in Nouméa provided an official count of the magnitude of the demonstrations.

It said the number of participants to the two marches was about 40,000 — 15 percent of New Caledonia’s population of 270,000.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia Kanaky reports

The total was about equally divided between pro-France and pro-independence marchers.

This was described as the largest crowd since the quasi-civil war that erupted in New Caledonia in the 1980s.

Organisers of the marches claim as many as 58,000 (pro-independence) and 35,000 (pro-France).

One of the marches was organised by a pro-independence field action coordination committee (CCAT) close to Union Calédonienne (UC), one of the components of the pro-independence FLNKS umbrella.

The other was called by two pro-France parties, the Rassemblement and Les Loyalistes, who urged their supporters to make their voices heard.

Controversial constitutional amendment
Both marches were over a French proposed constitutional amendment which aims at changing the rules of voters eligibility for New Caledonia and to allow citizens who have been residing the for at least 10 uninterrupted years to cast their votes at local elections — for the three provincial assemblies and for the local Congress.

It is estimated the new system would open the door to about 25,000 more voters.

Until now, and since 1998 as prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord, New Caledonia’s electoral roll for local elections was more restricted, as it only allowed citizens born or who had resided there before 1998 to vote in local elections.

The controversial text was endorsed, with amendments, by the French Senate (Upper House) on April 2.

As part of its legislative process, it is scheduled to be debated in the Lower House (National Assembly) on May 13 and then should again be put to the vote at the French Congress (a special gathering of both Upper and Lower Houses) sometime in June, with a required majority of three fifths.

The constitutional amendment, however, is designed to be interrupted if, at any time, New Caledonia’s leaders can produce an agreement on the French entity’s political future resulting from inclusive bipartisan talks.

But over the past months, those talks have stalled, even though French Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin — who initiated the Constitutional process — travelled to New Caledonia half a dozen times over the past 12 months.

The current legislative process also caused the postponement of New Caledonia’s provincial elections from May to mid-December “at the latest”.

‘Paris, hear our voice!’
In a tit-for-tat communications war, organisers on both sides also intended to send a strong message to sway Paris MPs from all sides of the political spectrum ahead of their debates.

New Caledonia’s pro-France parties were marching on Saturday in support of the constitutional amendment project, brandishing French tricolour flags, singing the French national anthem “La Marseillaise” and claiming “one man, one vote” on their banners.

Other banners read “This is our home!”, “No freedom without democracy!”, “Unfreeze is democracy” or “proud to be Caledonians, proud to be French”.

Les Loyalistes pro-France party leader Sonia Backès, in a brief speech, declared :”Paris, hear our voice”.

Nicolas Metzdorf, New Caledonia’s representative MP at the National Assembly, told local media: “It’s probably the largest demonstration that ever took place in New Caledonia . . . this gives us strength to pursue in our efforts to implement this electoral roll unfreezing. And the message I want to send to FLNKS is, ‘Don’t be afraid of us. We want to work with you, we want to build with you, but please stop the threats and the insults, it doesn’t help.”

‘Peace is at threat’ – Wamytan
The pro-independence march waved Kanaky flags in opposition to the constitutional amendment, saying this could make indigenous Kanaks a minority on their own land.

They are denouncing the whole process as being “forced” upon them by France and are asking for the constitutional amendment to be scrapped altogether.

Instead, they want a French high-level “dialogue mission” be sent to New Caledonia. It is suggested that speakers of both the National Assembly and the Senate should lead the mission.

“Peace is at threat because the (French) state is no longer impartial. It has touched a taboo and we must resist,” charismatic pro-independence eader and local Congress chair Roch Wamytan told the crowd, referring to the future of the indigenous Kanak people.

“Unfreezing this electoral roll is leading us to death.”

Wamytan is a prominent member of Union Calédonienne, which is one of the components of the multiparty pro-independence umbrella FLNKS.

Other members of the FLNKS group, PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Melanesian Progressive Union) parties have often expressed reservations about the UC-led confrontational approach and have consistently taken part in talks with Darmanin and other local parties.

Similarly, on the pro-French side (which did not associate itself with Saturday’s march), leader Philippe Gomès said they were concerned with the current confrontational and escalating atmosphere.

“Where is this going to lead us? Nowhere”, he told a press conference on Friday.

Gomès said the marches were a de facto admission that talks have failed.

He also called on Paris to send a dialogue mission to mediate between New Caledonia’s parties.

Security reinforcements had been sent from Paris to ensure that the two crowds did not come into contact at any stage.

No incident was reported and the two marches took place peacefully.

Darmanin at UN Decolonisation Committee
Meanwhile, on Friday, French minister Darmanin was to appear before the United Nations’ Special Decolonisation Committee as part of the regular monitoring of New Caledonia’s situation.

Before heading to New York UN headquarters, his entourage indicated that he wanted to underline France’s commitment for “respect of international law in New Caledonia” where a “legislative and constitutional process is currently underway to organise local elections under a new system”.

Darmanin maintains that New Caledonia’s electoral roll present restrictions, which were temporarily put in place as part of implementation of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, were no longer tenable under France’s democracy.

The proposed changes, still restrictive, are an attempt to restore “a minimum of democracy” in New Caledonia, he says.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Fresh clashes in New Caledonia have erupted in the suburbs of Nouméa between security forces and pro-independence protesters who oppose a nickel pact offering French assistance to salvage the industry.

The clashes, involving firearms, teargas and stone-throwing, went on for most of yesterday, blocking access roads to the capital Nouméa, as well as the nearby townships of Saint-Louis and Mont-Dore.

Traffic on the Route Provinciale 1 (RP1) was opened and closed several times, including when a squadron of French gendarmes intervened to secure the area by firing long-range teargas.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia politics reports

The day began with tyres being burnt on the road and then degenerated into violence from some balaclava-clad members of the protest group, who started throwing stones and sometimes using firearms and Molotov cocktails, authorities alleged.

Security forces said one of their motorbike officers, a woman, was assaulted and her vehicle was stolen.

Two of the protesters were reported to have been arrested for throwing stones.

Banners were deployed, some reading “Kanaky not for sale”, others demanding that New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou (pro-independence) resign.

Northern mining sites also targeted
Other incidents took place in the northern town of La Foa, in the small mining village of Fonwhary, near a nickel extraction site, where Société Le Nickel trucks were not allowed to use the road.

Mont-Dore Mayor Eddy Lecourieux told local Radio Rythme Bleu they had the right to demonstrate, “but they could have done that peacefully”.

“Instead, there’s always someone who starts throwing stones.”

At dusk, the Saint-Louis and Mont-Dore areas were described as under control, but security forces, including armoured vehicles, were kept in place.

“On top of that, there are more marches scheduled for this weekend,” Lecourieux said.

Pro-independence protesters oppose current plans to have a French Constitutional amendment endorsed by France’s two houses of Parliament.

As a first step of this Parliamentary process, last week, the Senate endorsed the text, but with some amendments.

Opposing marches
Pro-France movements also want to march on the same day in support of the amendment.

If endorsed, it would allow French citizens to vote at New Caledonia’s local elections, provided they have been residing there for an uninterrupted 10 years.

Pro-independent parties, however, strongly oppose the project, saying this would be tantamount to making indigenous Kanaks a minority at local polls, and would open the door to a “recolonisation” of New Caledonia through demographics.

A similar high-risk configuration of two marches took place on March 28 in downtown Nouméa, with more than 500 French security forces deployed to keep both groups away from each other.

French authorities are understood to be holding meeting after meeting to fine-tune the security setup ahead of the weekend.

Florent Perrin, the president of Mont-Dore’s “Citizens’ Association”, told media local residents were being “taken hostage” and the unrest “must cease”.

He urged political authorities to “make decisions on all political and economic issues” New Caledonia currently faces.

Perrin called on the local population to remain calm, but invited them to “individually lodge complaints” based on “breach of freedom of circulation”.

“On our side too, tensions are beginning to run high, so we have to remain calm and not respond to those acts of provocation,” he said.

The ‘nickel pact’ issue
The clashes and blockades took place on the same day the local Congress was discussing whether it should give the green light to New Caledonia’s President Louis Mapou to sign the “nickel pact”, worth around 200 million euros (NZ$358 million) in French emergency aid.

In return, France is asking that New Caledonia’s whole nickel industry should undergo a far-reaching slate of reforms in order to make nickel less expensive and therefore more attractive on the world market.

The pact aims to salvage New Caledonia’s embattled nickel industry and its three factories — one in the north of the main island, Koniambo (KNS), and two in the south, Société le Nickel (SLN), a subsidiary of French giant Eramet, and Prony Resources.

KNS’ nickel-processing operations were put in “sleep”, non-productive mode in February after its major financier, Anglo-Swiss Glencore, said it could no longer sustain losses totalling 14 billion euros (NZ$25 billion) over the past 10 years, and that it was now seeking an entity to buy its 49 percent shares.

The other two companies, SLN and Prony, are also facing huge debts and a severe risk of bankruptcy due to the new nickel conditions on the world market, now dominated by new players such as Indonesia, which produces a much cheaper and abundant metal.

New ultimatum from Northern Province
On Tuesday, Northern province President Paul Néaoutyine added further pressure by threatening to suspend all permits for mining activities in his province’s nine sites, where southern nickel companies are also extracting.

In a release, Néaoutyine made references to payment guarantees deadlines on April 10 that had not been honoured by SLN.

It is understood SLN’s owner, Eramet, was scheduled to meet in a general meeting in Paris later on Tuesday.

The French pact — France is also a stakeholder in Eramet — would also help SLN provide longer-term guarantees.

Southern province President and Les Loyalists (pro-France) party leader Sonia Backès alleged on Tuesday that Néaoutyine wants to do everything he can to shut down SLN and block the nickel pact

“Now things are very clear — before it was all undercover; now it’s out in the open,” she said.

“Now we will do everything to maintain SLN, because this means 3000 jobs at stake.”

Congress dragging its feet
Yesterday, New Caledonia’s Congress was holding a meeting behind closed doors to again discuss the French pact.

The Congress decided to postpone its decision and, instead, suggested setting up a “special committee” to further examine the pact and the condition it is tied to, and more generally, “the nickel industry’s current challenges”.

Opponents to the agreement mainly argue that it would pose a risk of “loss of sovereignty” for New Caledonia on its precious metal resource.

They also consider the nickel industry stake-holding companies are not committing enough and that, instead, New Caledonia’s government is asked to raise up to US$80 million (NZ$132 million), mainly by way of new taxes imposed on taxpayers.

Last week, a group of Congressmen, mostly from pro-independence Union Calédonienne, one of the four components of the pro-independence FLNKS, with the backing of one pro-France party, Avenir Ensemble, had a motion adopted to postpone one more time the signing of the pact.

President Mapou defies pro-independence MPs
President Louis Mapou, himself from the pro-independence side, urged the supporters of the motion to “let [him] sign” last week during a Congress public sitting.

“Let’s do it . . .  Authorise us to go at it . . .  What are you afraid of?” he said.

“Are we afraid of our militants?”

Mapou said if there was no swift Congress response and support to sign the pact, for which he himself had asked the Congress for endorsement, he would “take [his] responsibility” and go ahead anyway.

“I will honour the commitment I made to the French State.”

He said if they wanted to to sanction him with a motion of no confidence to go ahead. He was not afraid of this.

Mapou also told the pro-independence side in Congress that he believed they khad ept postponing any Congress decision “because you want to engage in negotiations as part of [New Caledonia’s] political agreements”.

Last week, Backès, who expressed open support for Mapou’s “courage”, told Radio Rythme Bleu she and Mapou had both received death threats.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Demonstrations have been held in New Caledonia — with more protests expected — from both pro- and anti-independence supporters after the French Senate endorsed a constitutional amendment bill to “unfreeze” the French Pacific territory’s electoral roll.

The Senators endorsed a move from the French government to allow French citizens to vote at local elections, provided they have been residing for at least 10 uninterrupted years.

The Senate vote will be followed by a similar vote in the French National Assembly (Lower House) on 13 May.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonian politics reports

In June, both Houses of Parliament (the Senate and National Assembly) will gather to give a final green light to the text with a majority of two-thirds required for it to pass.

The Senate vote in Paris on Tuesday has since triggered numerous reactions from both the pro-France and the pro-independence parties.

Southern Province president and leader of the pro-France party Les Loyalistes, Sonia Backès, hailed the Senate’s decision, saying it came “despite strong pressures from the pro-independence parties”.

She said “we have to stay mobilised” in the face of the two other planned votes in the next few weeks, she said, announcing more demonstrations from the pro-France sympathisers, including one next Saturday.

Counter protests
On March 28, both pro-France and pro-independence militant supporters gathered in the thousands in downtown Nouméa, only a few hundred metres away on opposite sides of Nouméa’s iconic Coconut Square (now renamed Peace Square) — one in front of the Congress, the other in front of the local government’s building.

The marches each gathered more than 10,000 supporters under strong surveillance from some 500 police and security forces, who ensured the two crowds did not clash. No significant incident was reported.

Several officials have taken to social media to comment on the issue.

New Caledonia constituency’s MP in the National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf, posted that the electoral roll changes were “a national and international legal obligation” and “those who are calling [New] Caledonians to take to the streets to oppose this are taking a considerable risk”.

Pro-France Rassemblement (local) Congress caucus president Virgine Ruffenach posted: “We are engaged in a struggle for justice, for a democratic Caledonian society which respects international rules and does not reject anyone.”

French Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin, who initiated the constitutional amendment, wrote that the French government “remains more than ever open to a local agreement and has a mechanism in place that will allow to take the time to finalise it”.

Darmanin was referring to a related political issue — the need, as prescribed by the 1998 political Nouméa Accord, for all parties to meet and inclusively arrive at a political agreement regarding New Caledonia’s future.

The agreement is supposed to replace the Nouméa Accord and, in order to allow more time for those talks to produce some kind of a joint text, the dates for this year’s provincial elections have been postponed from May 2024 to December 15, 2024 “at the latest”.

‘Strong message to Paris’
On the pro-independence side, FLNKS-Union Calédonienne Congress caucus president Pierre-Channel Tutugoro conceded that the Senate vote’s results were “something to be expected”.

“Now we’re waiting for what comes next [the National Assembly and French Congress votes] and then we’ll know whether things will eventuate,” he said.

The Union Calédonienne, one major component of the four-party pro-independence FLNKS, has in a few months revived a so-called CCAT (Cellule de Coordination des Actions de Terrain, or Field Action Coordination Cell).

The CCAT, consisting of non-FLNKS pro-independence parties and trade unions, has since organised several demonstrations, including one on March 28 and the latest on April 2, the day the Senate vote took place.

This week, CCAT claimed it managed to gather about 30,000 participants, but the French High Commission’s count was 6000.

Reacting to the Senate vote on Wednesday, CCAT head Christian Tein announced more protest marches against the “unfreezing” of the electoral roll were to come . . . the next one being as soon as April 13 “to keep on sending a strong message to Paris”.

Tein said the march was scheduled to take place on Nouméa’s central Peace Square.

The protesters once again intend to ask that the French government withdraw its text, claiming the French state is no longer impartial and that it is trying to “force its way” to impose its local electoral roll change.

The same date was also chosen by pro-France leaders and sympathisers who want to make a demonstration of force to show their determination to have their voting rights recognised through this proposed constitutional amendment.

PALIKA to ‘review strategy’
Meanwhile, another major component of the FLNKS, the Kanak Liberation Party (PALIKA), held its general assembly last weekend.

Its spokesman, Jean-Pierre Djaïwé, told a news conference that PALIKA, while deploring that New Caledonia’s politics had significantly “radicalised”, was now considering “reviewing its strategy”.

He said PALIKA and FLNKS, who recently have displayed differences, must now reaffirm a strategy of unity and “the pro-independence movement’s will to work towards a peaceful future”.

“There’s no other alternative,” he said.

The French Senate has endorsed a Constitutional review project bearing significant modifications to the local electoral rules for New Caledonia, but with amendments.

The text passed on Tuesday with 233 votes in favour and 99 against.

It aims at modifying the conditions for French citizens to access a special list of voters for the elections in New Caledonia’s three provinces and the Congress.

• READ MORE: French Parliament debates polarise tensions in New Caledonia

Since 2007 the electoral roll for those local elections was “frozen”, allowing only people residing in New Caledonia before 1998.

However, the French government and its Home Affairs and Overseas Minister Gérald Darmanin introduced earlier this year a new text for a “sliding” electoral roll allowing citizens who had been residing in New Caledonia for an uninterrupted 10 years to be on the local roll.

The move has been strongly contested by pro-independence parties in New Caledonia, who fear the new rules (which would grant the local vote to up to 25,000 extra voters) will threaten the French Pacific terrotory’s political balance.

During heated debates last week and Tuesday for the vote, Senators sometimes traded robust words, with the left-wing parties (including Socialists and Communists) rallying in support of New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties and accusing Darmanin of “forcing the text through”.

New Caledonia’s pro-independence umbrella, the FLNKS, last week officially demanded that the French government withdraw its Constitutional amendment and that instead a high-level mediatory mission be sent to New Caledonia.

Parallel to the Parliamentary moves, New Caledonia’s politicians, both pro and against independence, have been asked to meet for comprehensive talks in order to draw up a new agreement that would replace the now-defunct Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998.

Nouméa Accord
One of the Accord’s prescriptions was that three consecutive referendums on New Caledonia’s self-determination be held.

All three ballots took place in 2018 and 2021 and three times independence was defeated, albeit in narrow votes in the first two referendums.

However, even though the FLNKS contested the result of the third referendum (boycotted by the independence parties because of the covid pandemic), French President Emmanuel Macron said in July 2023 that he now considered New Caledonia wanted to remain French.

The next step in the Nouméa Accord was for political stakeholders to engage in “inclusive” talks to examine the “situation thus generated”.

The French government’s current moves are said to be a pragmatic response to those sometimes elusive guidelines.

The provincial elections, which were originally scheduled to take place in May, have now been postponed to December 15 “at the latest”.

But in the Constitutional review project, even though the sole subject is the change in access to local elections roll of voters, there are also references to the date of those elections.

This includes that even if a local, bipartisan, inclusive agreement was found and duly recognised between now and December 15, the Constitutional amendment would become irrelevant. Priority would be given to a local New Caledonian agreement to serve as the base for a new Constitutional amendment.

‘Give more time’
During debates since last week, the Senate’s Law Committee managed to introduce new amendments, sometimes rectifying the initial government text.

For instance, if the awaited accord to succeed the Nouméa pact came through, there would be a call for a new election date.

Originally, this would have been achieved by way of a government decree which, the government said, would be the fastest way.

Now the Senate has changed that to a Parliamentary process (also including New Caledonia’s Congress) which could take much more time to set in place.

The general idea, the Senate’s Law Committee said, was to “give more time” for the expected political agreement to happen “without applying excessive stress” to the whole process.

There was consensus on the need to “unfreeze” the local electoral roll (the measure was initially temporary and transitional under the Nouméa Accord) because it denied some 12,000 citizens (even if some of those, indigenous Kanaks or non-Kanaks, were born in New Caledonia) the right to vote.

It was feared that if those elections were held under the “frozen” rule, they would probably be declared invalid and unconstitutional.

Critics of the amendment, including New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie, also said that the manner in which it was “forced” — more than its substance — was a major flaw and that the French State should keep an “impartial” posture, consistent with the spirit of the Nouméa Accord.

‘Don’t inflame’ call
“The point of no return has not been reached yet. We can still avoid lighting that spark which could inflame the whole situation”, Xowie told the Senate.

He also called on the French Prime Minister’s office, once directly in charge of New Caledonia’s matters, to return to steer these issues.

The 10-year uninterrupted residency condition was described by the government as “a reasonable compromise”, Darmanin’s delegate Minister for Overseas Marie Guévenoux told the Senate.

While apologising for Darmanin’s absence, she said the new self-imposed calendar challenges due to the change of implementation process would be hard to meet.

She said there were provisions in the initial draft that would have allowed the government to react more quickly by way of decree in suspending the provincial elections — and even postponing them as far as “November 2025”.

Waiting for a local, inclusive political agreement
After the Senate’s endorsement of the modified amendment, the text is, however, far from the end of its legislative journey: it is now due for debate before the National Assembly on May 13.

If it passes again, its legislative journey is not finished yet as it has to be endorsed sometime in June 2024 by the French Congress, which is a gathering of both the Senate and National Assembly by a required three-fifths majority.

Tensions high back in Nouméa
During debates on Tuesday, Senators often alluded to the recent radicalisation from both the pro-independence and pro-French parties.

Last week, the two antagonist groups held two opposing demonstrations and marches at the same time, both in downtown Nouméa, only a few hundred meters away from each other.

Thousands, on each side, have held banners and flags opposing the electoral changes on one side and supporting them on the other side.

There was also a clear escalation in the tone of speeches held, notably by the French  “loyalists”.

Part of their protest last Thursday was also to denounce a series of government-imposed taxes, including one on fuel (which has since been withdrawn after a series of blockades) and the other on electricity (to avoid bankruptcy for local power company Enercal)

Last month, “loyalists” members walked out of New Caledonia’s “collegial” government, saying they regarded their pro-independence party colleagues as “illegitimate”.

On the local scene, over the past few months, New Caledonia has been facing the very real effects of an economic crisis for its crucial nickel industry.

One of the three nickel mining plants has been temporarily shut down and the other two are facing a similarly bleak future, putting at risk thousands of jobs.

Paris has put on the table a rescue plan worth over 200 million euros to bail out New Caledonia’s nickel industry, provided it engages in stringent reforms to lower its production costs, but the signing, initially scheduled to take place by the end of March, has still not happened.

Later this week, New Caledonia’s congress is due to meet specifically on the matter to authorise President Louis Mapou to do so.

One strong opponent to the amendment’s vote this week, Mélanie Vogel (Greens and Solidarity caucus) warned the House she believed if the amendment was forced through “we are getting ready to break the conditions that made a return to civil peace possible”.

She and others from all sides of the House also supported the idea of some kind of a delegation to foster the conclusion of talks for the much-expected successor agreement to the Nouméa Accord.

During the first half of the 1980s, New Caledonia was the scene of a civil war between pro and anti-independence sides which only ended after the signing of the Matignon-Oudinot Accords in 1988.

The Nouméa Accord followed in 1998.

“We’re all waiting for this inclusive agreement to arrive, but for the time being, it’s not there. So this (constitutional amendment), for now, is the least bad solution,” Senator Philippe Bonnecarrère (Centrist Union) told the House.

“So this (constitutional amendment), for now, is the least bad solution.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.