French President Emmanuel Macron began the most delicate part of his visit to the archipelago on Thursday in New Caledonia with a new round of meetings with local political leaders, including separatists, to try to initiate a return to ” dialogue” and “security” after more than a week of riots.
After the loyalist representatives, Emmanuel Macron met Thursday at nightfall with the leaders of the independence parties. All components of the independence parties of the archipelago are present around the table, according to the list of the delegation distributed by the Élysée.
Among them are several leaders of the Caledonian Union (UC) and executives of the Palika party. Under house arrest, Christian Tein, member of the UC and leader of the CCAT, the independence collective which is organizing the protest, is also present.
The head of state previously met non-independence activists, including Sonia Backès, leader of the radical branch of the loyalists, and Philippe Dunoyer, figure of Calédonie Ensemble.
“Decisions” during the day
Emmanuel Macron has not commented on a possible postponement of the Congress which must bring together deputies and senators before the end of June unless an agreement on a global text between separatists and loyalists is reached by then.
This constitutional reform, which is at the origin of the unrest, aims to “thaw”, that is to say, to expand the electoral body in New Caledonia.
But the French president’s objective is clear: a return “as quickly as possible […] peace, calm, security” and a resumption of “dialogue”, he declared as soon as he got off the plane at Nouméa airport.
He promised “decisions” and “announcements” at “the end of this day”, even if he assured that he had “no limit” on time on site.
While since the start of the riots, six people have been killed, including two mobile gendarmes, the head of state observed a minute of silence as a preamble to a first meeting with elected officials and economic actors, followed by an informal lunch and a visit to a police station.
This “absolutely unprecedented insurrection movement”, “no one saw it coming with this level of organization and violence”, he told the gendarmes and police officers present.
A little earlier, he assured that the approximately 3,000 members of the security forces deployed “will remain as long as necessary, even during the Olympic and Paralympic Games” in Paris which end at the beginning of September.
As for the state of emergency in force for a week, he “thinks” that it “should not be extended” beyond the legal 12 days, provided that “all the leaders” of the archipelago “call to remove the roadblocks.”
“Constructive appeasement”
Accompanied by three senior French officials whose mission will be to renew dialogue with separatists and non-separatists, Emmanuel Macron called for “constructive appeasement” and the search for a political “solution”.
But without returning to the result of the three referendums which confirmed the maintenance of the overseas territory in the French Republic, because “appeasement cannot be a step backwards”, he argued.
On the ground, “the night was calm,” High Commissioner Louis Le Franc told AFP.
“There was no additional damage but there are so many things that are destroyed,” he further argued. 281 people have been taken into custody since May 12, the overwhelming majority for property crimes, according to a judicial source.
The return to calm remains precarious. In the working-class district of Montravel, mainly populated by the Kanak and Oceanian communities, groups of young people circulated with masked faces, carrying slingshots made of odds and ends, noted an AFP journalist.
And, on the road which connects Dumbéa, to the north of the capital of the archipelago, conquered and colonized in the 19th century, numerous filter dams and the remains of burned cars continue to chop up traffic.
“No to thaw”
In Greater Nouméa, these dams were even reinforced overnight.
The separatists raised their flags and hung banners: “No to thaw”.
“The text (reform of the electoral body, editor’s note) for us, it no longer exists since there are deaths, it is no longer even a subject of discussion”, explains to AFP Lélé, a mother of independentist family of 41 years.
A return to normal life has begun in the center of Nouméa, crisscrossed by a strong police presence, but where many stores have reopened their doors.
To add to the instability, the archipelago was also targeted by a cyberattack of “unprecedented strength” aimed at “saturating the Caledonian network”, but which was stopped, announced Christopher Gygès, member of the Caledonian collegial government.
A large part of the political class is calling on the head of state to urgently postpone the Congress.
“I do not see the President of the Republic being able to summon (him) […] without the prerequisite of a general agreement,” noted the President of the Senate Gérard Larcher.