(Nouméa) In the aftermath of the self-determination referendum in New Caledonia won by supporters of maintaining this strategic archipelago in France, the rejection of the result by the separatists reveals a territory that is still so fractured for discussing its political future.
According to the final results of this third and last referendum on the independence of this archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, the no won with 96.49% of the votes, against 3.51% for the yes. In the two previous elections, the no had obtained 56.7% of the vote in 2018 then 53.3% in 2020.
This overwhelming result is to be put into perspective with regard to the turnout, of only 43.90%, or barely more than half the rate of previous referendums, the boycott instruction having clearly been followed by yes supporters. This call was launched by the separatists who demanded the postponement of the vote to September 2022, arguing “of an impossible fair campaign” because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The separatists grouped together in the Strategic Independentist Committee for Non-Participation “do not recognize the legitimacy and validity of this ballot which has been confiscated from them”, they indicated in a press release.
French President Emmanuel Macron greeted this victory of no on Sunday. “Tonight, France is more beautiful, because New Caledonia has decided to stay there”, he declared, nevertheless acknowledging that the electorate remained “deeply divided despite the passage of the years”.
The result of the referendum was scrutinized well beyond the borders of France, in particular among the ambitious Chinese neighbor, the main buyer of nickel, of which New Caledonia is one of the world’s leading producers. It is also a major producer of cobalt, essential for the manufacture of batteries.
The archipelago of over 200,000 inhabitants also provides France with a vast exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of some 1.5 million km2 more than a tenth of the national total and a strategic location in the Indo-Pacific region, against a background of expanding Chinese influence.
“The path to dialogue has been broken by the stubbornness of a French government unable to reconcile its geostrategic interests in the Pacific and its obligation to decolonize our country”, assured the separatists, referring “to the UN resolutions which included New Caledonia on the list of countries to be decolonized ”.
” Transition period ”
Caledonians have been involved in this process since the 1980s, a period of unrest between the Kanaks, the first inhabitants of the archipelago, and the Caldoches, descendants of white settlers. This violence culminated in the hostage-taking and the assault on Ouvéa cave in May 1988, in which 19 Kanak militants and six soldiers were killed.
Less than two months after this tragedy, separatists and loyalists succeeded in concluding the Matignon agreements, which revised the distribution of powers in New Caledonia. Ten years later, the signing of the Noumea Accord established a 20-year decolonization process for this French overseas collectivity.
This agreement provided for a succession of three referendums to ask the inhabitants if they wanted the archipelago “to achieve full sovereignty and become independent”.
“The Nouméa agreement is coming to its legal end”, recalled Mr. Macron, while a “transition period is now opening which frees from the binary alternative between yes and no” and which “must lead us to build a common project ”.
The separatists warned that they rejected any meeting with the Minister of Overseas Overseas Sébastien Lecornu, who arrived in Nouméa on Friday, before the French presidential and legislative elections of 2022, judging that his presence “is more part of the presidential campaign than it is. ‘is the bearer of solutions for the future ”.
“The state does not intend to confuse speed and haste either,” Lecornu told AFP, who will focus his visit until Wednesday on local finances, the health situation and the nickel industry.
A calendar defined in June in Paris by the Caledonian actors provides for this third referendum to be followed by an 18-month transition period to organize a project referendum, depending on the result, before June 30, 2023.