As the Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories concludes her visit to the country, two months after the start of the riots caused by electoral reform in New Caledonia, the text appears to be on hold.
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“Nobody says it clearly, but the text is buried“, says a Kanak independence activist, close to this highly sensitive issue. Two months after New Caledonia was hit by riots that largely destroyed the island’s economic fabric, the Minister for Overseas Territories, Marie Guevenoux, ends her three-day visit to the Rock on Friday, August 2.
However, the reform of the electoral body, which is at the origin of these violent disturbances, was swept away by the dissolution of the National Assembly. The future of the text is therefore more than uncertain. And the Kanak independence activist slipped in that he did not expect any announcement from the resigning minister, despite his numerous meetings with elected officials from New Caledonia in recent days.
It must be said that it was Emmanuel Macron himself who took up the matter. There will be a new meeting in mid-September with all the political forces of the archipelago, he promised at the end of July to the four Caledonian parliamentarians received at the Élysée. But without a government or majority in the Assembly, it is unclear: the dissolution has put the “text paused”deplores another source, on the loyalist side, to franceinfo…
The president of the archipelago’s congress, Roch Wamytan, is calling for a “Joint parliamentary mission“, composed of personalities from mainland France, but also representatives from Oceania and members of the United Nations. This is the only way, according to him, to calm a situation where there is no longer any trust.
In total, ten people, including two gendarmes, have died in New Caledonia since the outbreak of this revolt on May 13 against a proposed reform of the electoral body during the provincial elections. The cost of the riots is estimated at at least 2.2 billion euros by the Caledonian government.