Overseas Minister François-Noël Buffet’s trip to New Caledonia ended this Saturday as it began: with a speech urging ” back to dialogue » , in an area where the institutional balance is still fragile.
In other words: either the Caledonian political class sits around the table, or the territory, where unrest left 13 dead and billions of euros in damage, risks falling into chaos.
The state has decided to bury the constitutional reform that the former interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, initiated in the electoral body, accused by the separatists of marginalizing the indigenous Kanak population, and to postpone the provincial elections scheduled for December until the end of 2025.
To date, only natives of “Caillou” and residents who arrived before 1998 can participate in this election. The separatists believe that opening the electoral body before agreeing on New Caledonia’s future status would amount to drowning out their demands. But for the Loyalists, “open “for recent arrivals is a democratic imperative.
The schedule is tight and can be compared to the one that, due to lack of consensus, led to the explosion of violence on May 13: for the elections to be held peacefully, it will be necessary ” agree by March 2025 on a constitutional reform by July and holding elections at the end of November » , enumerates the president of the southern province, the loyalist Sonia Backès.
“Comprehensive Agreement”
” We need a global agreement and not just about the voters » agrees Virginie Ruffenach, president of the Le Rassemblement-Les Républicains group at the New Caledonia Congress.
Six months after the start of the violence, no one will risk asking for separate treatment of the question of the voters.
” We cannot act as if May 13 did not exist » , warns Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, chairman of the UC-FLNKS group at the congress, satisfied with the method envisaged by the new minister. ” He confirmed to us that the decolonization process was still ongoing. So we will put independence on the table, full and complete or with partnership, but in any case we see today that all options are on the table », he assures.
The National Union for Independence (UNI), the other major independence group represented at the Congress in New Caledonia, is on the same wavelength. ” We would like to resume the discussions, but we are not starting from scratch, since 2013 we have carried out an independence project in partnership with France. The minister told us that it was up to the Caledonians to come to an agreement. We say that the state has a responsibility and that it must offer all opportunities » explains Jean-Pierre Djaïwé, the chairman of the group. A step that he believes the state will be ready to take.
Le Rassemblement-Les Républicains also believes that “you don’t have to start from scratch. We worked with the state, we worked locally with the separatists. There is a foundation that is not lost and on which we can effectively put the trade back to work » , assures Virginie Ruffenach.
But the Loyalists group makes a dissenting voice heard. ” All discussions took place within the framework of a peaceful and prosperous New Caledonia. So we’re almost starting from a blank page. And there are concessions that we are clearly no longer ready to make today » , warns Gil Brial. There is also no question of hearing about independence with partnership: “ The Caledonians have already rejected independence three times. So for us it is settled ».
On Saturday, Renaissance MP Nicolas Metzdorf called for a resumption of the discussions ” from November ».
But this will probably not take place until December: it will first be necessary for the presidents of the Senate and the National Assembly, Gérard Larcher and Yaël Braun-Pivet, to have completed their ” consultation mission » , but also that the Socialist Kanak Liberation Front (FLNKS) decided at the end of November to act jointly with the independence camp.
