REPORTING. In New Caledonia, the campaign for the third referendum on independence looks like a “match in the void”

Slightly leaning over her cart filled with sheets and towels, the maid suddenly sits up. “Good-hello gentlemen”, she stammers, at the end of the morning of Monday, December 6, stuck against one of the walls of the corridor to let two gendarmes in fatigues pass, rangers on their feet and handguns in hand. She got used to it: the Nouvata hotel, a two-star establishment located in Anse Vata, in Nouméa, was transformed into a base camp for part of the 2,200 reinforcements from France with the mission of securing the third and the last independence referendum for New Caledonia, scheduled for Sunday 12 December.

The troops put down their packages there. A soldier crosses the entrance hall, Flash-Ball on his belt, under the dumbfounded eyes of tourists slumped in armchairs. At the entrance to the car park, squatted by large blue or khaki machines, another mill with its arms, like a traffic officer. “The only thing missing now is that helicopters land on the roof, like James Bond”, laughs a visitor who will be asked, a moment later, to “kindly” park your car further away.

“It is not a classic ballot, given the stakes and the expectations”, justified a few days ago the general of the gendarmerie Christophe Marietti, in charge of the operation. This is summed up well: in mid-October, the separatists took the floor – and everyone was short – by announcing that this final consultation would take place without them. How to make a “fair campaign” in the midst of a pandemic of Covid-19, they question in substance. The archipelago, which lived without the virus for a year and a half, was indeed caught up with the start of the September, with 270 dead in six weeks (279 to December 5), mainly Kanaks, historical inhabitants of the territory. “Give us time to bury our dead”, Kanak officials repeat at the microphone and in front of the cameras, asking for the vote to be postponed.

A report ? Out of the question, replies the Minister of Overseas Territories, Sébastien Lecornu. And now the referendum provided by the Nouméa accord on the accession of New Caledonia to full sovereignty and independence will take place without the participation of the “colonized people”, according to the official terms of the compromise signed by France twenty-three years ago.

The catch is, no one really anticipated this scenario. Neither the High Commission of the Republic, which represents the French State on this territory and prints the ballot papers. NOTi political scientists, who repeated this summer that “electoral dynamics” was “in the camp of the separatists”. Neither the loyalists, supporters of maintaining in France, who no longer have a direct opponent. Neither the media, finally, forced to cancel in disaster their talk shows, shortly before the deadline.

On the electoral boards reigns an impression of emptiness. Only the posters for the “no” tan in the sun. Puzzles also in the corridors of the CSA: on TV and radio, only the spots produced by the parties in favor of maintaining the French Republic are broadcast, the supporters of the “yes” not having sent the slightest tape .

Funny atmosphere … Along the 400 km of RT1, which serves all the municipalities of the west coast,e Dumbéa in Koumac, there are some “Kanaky” flags here and there, visible from afar, with their five colors (blue, red, green, yellow and black). On trees, on electric poles. Corn “nothing to do with what we experienced in 2018 and 2020”, remarks a pro-independence voter crossed at the service station of Moindon, symbol “kanaky” which hangs in the rear-view mirror. The full gasoline paid, he launches the discussion:

“- Where are you from like that?

– Hienghene.

– Above all, you must have seen banners related to Covid-19.

– Exact.

– Well, there you go. This is what concerns us at the moment. The Covid, not the poll.

– Are you going to vote on December 12?

– No, I’ll go hunting. ”

To tell the truth, the Kanak leaders have not done anything. “We went to our constituents, but it was not to campaign, wants to point out Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, the secretary general of the Caledonian Union, a political party which campaigns for the independence of the territory. It was to remind people of the 12th order: we are not going to vote. ” In recent days, for example, he has parked his car in Nouméa, La Foa, Païta, Poya, Poindimié, for two-hour meetings each time, “in neighborhoods or in tribes”, “in question-and-answer mode”.

“There are people who still plan to vote, or who don’t always understand why you shouldn’t vote. So we explain to them why you have to stay at home.”

Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, Secretary General of the Caledonian Union

to franceinfo

It prevents : “For people who are supposed to remain discreet, the separatists express themselves and show themselves a lot. The forums in the media, the press releases … You do not find that they are still visible? “ whispers, teasing, a supporter of “no” to independence. On social networks, each new support for their request to postpone the poll is indeed relayed en masse. It includes that of the movement “For an autonomous Alsace in a Europe of the peoples”, of 25 deputies from Madrid from six different parties, of the Corsican independence political movement “Core in Fronte”, of the Communist Workers’ Party of France (PCOF), of the CGT, Solidaires, the Communist Party of Reunion, the Breton separatists, the Basque senator Gorka Elejabarrieta Diaz, and even that of the Ecumenical Council of Churches …

Opposite, the supporters of the “no” feel “a little alone”. “It feels like playing a game in a vacuum, compares Philippe Gomès, UDI deputy of New Caledonia and member-founder of the Calédonie party together. The debates should have been interesting moments of confrontation, but the defenders of the ‘yes’ do not come. So we’re not going to come either. A debate is at least two opponents, not an empty chair opposite that does not answer you. ” En 2018, during the very first referendum, he and his teams had “plowed” the island “In fro and through”. “We had 137 meetings!” And this time? “Oh, Oh, blows the chosen one. I have the feeling that I am in a Canada Dry campaign, it is very strange. The absence of the separatists does not help. “

A few days before the poll, for example, he spoke in front of 30 people during a public meeting in Bourail, in the bush, 160 kilometers north of Noumea. “I would have loved that we were more, 70, 80. But there you have it, there is a gauge that we respect.” Failing to ignite the crowd, as three years ago, the deputy has therefore donned an impeccably ironed shirt four times to answer questions from Internet users, on Facebook Live.

“It’s less warm than a real meeting but it’s a way of keeping in touch, of staying in the dynamics of a poll.”

Philippe Gomès, UDI deputy from New Caledonia

to franceinfo

Summerbetween the two camps? No contact, but everyone “watch” the other. We even help each other. Ahienghène, a pro-independence stronghold who voted over 95% to leave France in the two previous elections, the municipality has “kindly” agreed to take a “no” poster with her. Philippe Gomès’ teams had not been able to tape it because the plywood serving as electoral panels had not yet been installed on the day of their arrival. “They themselves went to put our poster in the tribe and they sent us a picture when it was done”, smiles the parliamentarian.

On December 13, the day after the vote, everyone will find their way back. thes independence leaders have already warned that they would not recognize the outcome of the ballot box. Pierre-Etienne Bisch and the 260 delegates from the control commission scattered around the various polling stations are tasked with recording in a register each incident that they see, such as “people who would come without the intention of voting but with the intention of harming” to the sincerity of the ballot, sums up the honorary State Councilor, notebook under his arm. “It promises a funny referendum, cowardly, bitter, Pierre-Christophe Pantz, doctor in geopolitics at the University of New Caledonia. Whatever the outcome, nothing will be settled, it keeps us in a kind of stalemate. ” The gendarmes will stay at the Nouvata hotel for as long as necessary. The end date of their mission at the end of the world has not yet been set.