the mayor of Nouméa asks Emmanuel Macron “not to convene the Congress”

The state of emergency declared on May 15 in the archipelago is supposed to end at the end of the week. “I think it will be impossible to put everything back in order” by the end of this deadline, declares Sonia Lagarde on franceinfo.

“I am afraid that the President of the Republic will be obliged to extend” the state of emergency in New Caledonia, estimates Monday May 20 on franceinfo, Sonia Lagarde, Renaissance mayor of Nouméa. This exceptional regime came into force last Wednesday, for a maximum duration of twelve days. It was decreed by Emmanuel Macron in reaction to the riots in the archipelago. For eight days, New Caledonia has been plagued by violence not seen in 40 years, caused by the constitutional reform on the unfreezing of the electoral body for provincial elections.

The mayor of Nouméa explains that she had an exchange Monday morning with the High Commissioner of the Republic, Louis Le Franc. “I think it will be impossible to put everything back in order” by the end of this twelve-day deadline, declares Sonia Lagarde after this discussion. “It seems extremely complicated to me.”insists the chosen one. “Nouméa is still a martyred and besieged city”, she says. The mayor of Nouméa assumes the term “besieged” because “rioters hold roadblocks, surround the city”. A situation “extremely difficult for the populations”, she laments. Sonia Lagarde assures that “In the northern neighborhoods, it’s been more than a week since people have been able to get past the roadblocks because the rioters are holding them very firmly.”

According to a press release from the High Commission of the Republic on Monday, “Last night was generally calmer than the previous ones”. But “it’s still burning”, reacts Sonia Lagarde. However, she welcomes the work “extremely active law enforcement.” They “managed to clear a number of roadblocks between Nouméa and Tontouta airport”specifies the city councilor.

A major operation was launched on Sunday to regain control of the strategic road linking Nouméa to its international airport and free it from dozens of roadblocks erected by separatists. She mobilized “more than 600 gendarmes, including around a hundred from the GIGN”, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. The High Commission of the Republic considers that the operation “is a success with 76 dams neutralized”. The mayor of Nouméa is more moderate. “No, the road is not safe. It would be wrong to say so.” Sonia Lagarde emphasizes that certain dams are reforming because there “has very mobile rioters, who do not give up and who systematically put the roadblocks behind them.”

So that “calm returns”, the Renaissance mayor of Nouméa asks Emmanuel Macron “not to convene Congress” aimed at ratifying the constitutional reform on the unfreezing of the electorate. A request also made by the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet, also a member of the presidential majority.

Sonia Lagarde thinks that the head of state “understood well” there “need” to do “an institutional break”. According to her, this is “the only possible outcome” to calm the situation in the archipelago. “We will have to give time for calm to return” and thus allow “for everyone to return to the discussion table and build something for New Caledonia”, concludes the councilor.