“The old people fought for our rights, now the youth are fighting to preserve them.” Manie, 24, lives in the working-class district of Montravel, in Nouméa. The young Kanak supports the opposition movement to the constitutional reform in the archipelago, voted on Tuesday May 14 by the National Assembly. “We support our brothers in the street”, she insisted Tuesday evening, as the first night of curfew began. Out, “everything is black, there are roadblocks, fire, smoke”, she described from her home, where she took shelter. “Law enforcement is everywhere.”
The violence began on Monday on the sidelines of a pro-independence mobilization against the thawing of the electoral body. In Nouméa and its suburbs, stores were looted, houses burned and clashes broke out between demonstrators and the police. Several “hundreds” people were injured on Tuesday, including one “hundred” police officers and gendarmes, according to the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin. Two people were killed, and the High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc, described the situation as“insurrectional”.
“Today, things are crashing everywhere, because our survival depends on it”, warns Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, president of the UC-FLNKS group and nationalists in the Congress of New Caledonia. On May 13, the representative voted in Congress for a resolution calling for the rejection of the constitutional amendment.
Dince the Nouméa Agreement of May 5, 1998, the electorate has been frozen in the archipelago. The right to vote in provincial elections and local referendums is reserved for people with New Caledonian citizenship under certain conditions, in order to maintain the representation of the Kanaks, the indigenous people. The constitutional revision aims to extend the right to vote to people who have resided in the territory for more than ten years.
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However, this measure does not respect the Nouméa agreement, denounce opponents of the text. “There should be no reform, because the decolonization process is not finished”, opposes Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro. In the Nouméa agreement, it is planned that the status of the archipelago will be debated after a third referendum on independence.
This consultation took place in December 2021, and the “no” to independence won. But the separatists, who notably contested the date of the election, in the midst of the Covid-19 epidemic and had called for a boycott of the vote, do not recognize the outcome. “For us, the third consultation did not take place, we are contesting the results”, resumes Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro. He also underlines that between the first referendum in 2018 and the second in 2020, the “yes” for independence increased by more than three points (from 43.3% to 46.7%).
“Before discussing the electorate, we must complete the Nouméa agreement on decolonization.”
Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, president of the UC-FLNKS group and nationalists in Congressat franceinfo
By announcing this constitutional revision in July 2023, Emmanuel Macron “set fire to the powder”adds Jean-Pierre Djaïwe, head of the National Union for Independence (UNI) group. “We asked the State not to include the thaw in this review, so that we could first discuss the status of New Caledonia. This decision was taken unilaterally. It is politically dishonest “, supports the independence movement.
Since the Matignon Accords in 1988, which put an end to years of bloody violence between Kanaks and Caldoches (Caledonians of European origin), There was always “a national consensus on New Caledonia”recalls the historian Louis-José Barbançon from New Caledonia La 1ère. “The entire French nation supports the Caledonian process [de décolonisation], It was done under Mitterrand, Chirac, Sarkozy… And there, everything is shattered.” observes the specialist, also opposed to the electoral thaw. According to him, the situation worsened in particular when the loyalist Sonia Backès (Renaissance), one of the figures of the opposition to independence, was appointed Secretary of State for Citizenship in 2022. The separatists there saw the sign that “the State had chosen a side”, points out the historian.
The other concern of opponents of the text is the possible minoritization of the Kanak people. Currently, theThe Kanaks represent 41% of the population, the Caldoches account for 24%, according to the Institute of Statistics of New Caledonia. However, selon a Senate report (in PDF)the electoral thaw would increase the composition of the electoral body by 14.5%, adding 12,441 natives of New Caledonia, as well as 13,400 French citizens present continuously for at least ten years in the archipelago. “If all these people vote, the Kanak people will be in the minority, and no people want to be in the minority in their country”warns Rosine Streeter, herself a Kanak and creator of the Libre Unité Action union.
Nowadays, the separatists govern the Northern province and that of the Loyalty Islands. Only the Southern province is led by loyalists, in this case Sonia Backès.
“If the electorate is expanded, the separatists will lose control of the provinces, or no longer be represented in the Southern province.”
Rosine Streeter, independence activistat franceinfo
The question of the representation of the Kanak community has always been essential for the separatists. Rosine Streeter recalls thus the consequences of Pierre Messmer’s circular in 1972, in which the Prime Minister encouraged “the massive immigration of metropolitan French citizens” towards the archipelago, with the aim of weakening “the indigenous nationalist claim”quote Humanity and the Academy of Nouméa (in PDF).
Since France took possession of New Caledonia in 1853, the Kanaks have continued to revolt to defend their rights. For sixty years (1887-1946), their existence was governed by the native code, denying them access to citizenship. A story inseparable from current debates on the enlargement of the electorate. “We understand that people who have lived here for twenty years want to vote, but we still have to discuss the conditionsshade Jean-Pierre Djaïwe. If everyone who arrives here after this law can vote, what will become of the Kanaks?”
This reform also comes in a context of economic tensions. Nickel mining, which is experiencing a serious global crisis linked to falling prices, remains the region’s largest employer. A “nickel pact” was proposed by the government, but the separatists are opposed to it. Added to this is the persistence of inequalities between Kanaks and the rest of the population, particularly in access to employment, recalls Mélanie Atapo, president of the Union of Kanak Workers and the Exploited (USTKE).
“Kanaks continue to be a very small minority among executives and the majority occupy part-time positions.”
Mélanie Atapo, president of USTKEat franceinfo
“For young Kanaks, it is still very difficult to find a job”deplores Manie, a young resident of the Montravel district. “Even young people who go to study in mainland France and return with diplomas find themselves unemployed”deplores Jean-Jacky Oine, Kanak host in the same neighborhood.
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In the minds of all opponents, these riots recall the “events” of the 1980s which pitted Kanaks and Caldoches against each other in bloodshed. This violence culminated in April-May 1988 with the hostage-taking of gendarmes and the assault on the Ouvéa cave, during which 19 Kanak militants and two French soldiers were killed. “If Macron comes through in force, it will be a mess like during the ‘events’, warns trade unionist Rosine Streeter. I lived through this era and it seems that France has retained nothing.”