Protests against a French government plan to impose new voting rules on New Caledonia have spiralled into the deadliest violence on the French Pacific territory since the 1980s. The unrest has exposed divisions between indigenous inhabitants, descendants of colonisers and newcomers to the overseas archipelago.
Deadly riots erupted in Nouméa, capital of New Caledonia, a French Pacific island territory, on Monday before a vote in the National Assembly, the French lower house of parliament, on a proposed electoral reform.
Under the terms of the 1998 Nouméa Accord, only New Caledonia natives and long-term residents have been eligible to vote in provincial elections and local referendums, to preserve the balance between the indigenous Kanak population and new arrivals from mainland France.
Tensions have simmered for decades between the Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of colonisers who want it to remain part of France.
The reforms are aimed at enlarging the electorate for New Caledonia’s provincial elections, a move decried by the pro-independence movement.
But the proportion of voters disenfranchised from provincial elections has steadily increased over the past few years. If the reform becomes law, more than 25,000 people could join the electoral roll: 12,441 natives and almost 13,400 people who have resided in the territory for at least 10 years, according to the New Caledonian Institute of Statistics.
Provincial elections are due before December 2024 to choose the elected representatives of the three provincial assemblies.
The stakes in these elections are high. The distribution of seats in the provincial assemblies directly influences the distribution of seats in the territory’s Congress, or parliament, which in turn appoints the president of the New Caledonian government. Anti-independence candidates won 28 of the 54 parliamentary seats in 2019.
While “loyalists” – residents who want New Caledonia to remain part of France – are calling for equal voting rights, pro-independence residents believe that expanding the electoral body could lead to further losses of seats in Congress and less power for the Kanak people.
Indigenous Kanak people accounted for 41.2% of the archipelago's population in the 2019 census, according to the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
“The Caledonian population is questioning the legitimacy of allowing a part of the population, which may not stay very long in New Caledonia, or that lives in very closed circles in the south of the territory, to have access to the vote,” said Évelyne Barthou, a senior lecturer in sociology at the University of Pau. “There is a general feeling of anger and injustice but also a fear that the Kanak population will disappear or be drowned out by the rest. These tensions would be less pronounced if the inequalities between Europeans and Kanaks weren't so marked today.”
Nouméa, which has a large European population and a dominant role in the archipelago’s economy, is the centre of the current unrest. Social and economic inequalities persist there, with “very marked ethnic cleavages, with economically privileged neighbourhoods on one side and largely disadvantaged neighbourhoods on the other, inhabited mainly by Kanaks or Melanesians”, said Barthou.
The proposed constitutional reform follows three referendums on independence won by the “no” camp between 2018 and 2021. The last referendum, marked by a record abstention rate, was boycotted by pro-independence campaigners who criticised the decision to hold the vote during the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘No dialogue’
The archipelago’s main pro-independence party, the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), denounced the reform's approval in the National Assembly, which took place shortly after midnight on Wednesday.
“There is no dialogue between those who initiated this reform and the Caledonians, even though agreement cannot be reached without them,” said Isabelle Merle, a historian of colonialism specialising in New Caledonia at the National Centre of Science and Research (CNRS). “We can't neglect the emancipation process by imposing rules without taking divergent opinions into account.”
Discussions on the archipelago's future began in 1988 after a decade of separatist conflict and violence. The Matignon-Oudinot Accords of that summer created three provinces and officially recognised the Kanak people. The Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 under the leadership of France’s then prime minister Lionel Jospin, launched the process of decolonising the territory.
“While the Nouméa Accord enabled the transfer of powers, New Caledonia's colonial history seems to have been forgotten in the (recent) parliamentary debate, with some representatives ignoring it,” said Merle. “The idea of this reform is to return to an initial situation where any French person arriving in the territory had the right to vote, while the Kanaks did not. This reopening of the floodgates is causing tensions, as expected and announced.”
Anger provoked by the reform is compounded by frustration in an archipelago where over 26% of young people are unemployed and a crisis involving nickel, New Caledonia's main economic resource, is causing concern.
Daniel Wéa, president of the Movement of Young Kanaks in France, told Reuters at a Paris rally on Tuesday that “if there is violence today in the country, it is a response to the violence suffered since colonisation until today”.
Daniel Goa, president of the pro-independence Caledonian Union party, called on young people to “go home” on Tuesday while strongly condemning acts of looting and violence. He nonetheless stressed that “the unrest of the last 24 hours reveals the determination of our young people to no longer let France do this to them”.
‘Opportunities slipping away’
The National Assembly passed the voting rights bill on Wednesday by 351 votes to 153, with left-wing MPs in opposition. The far-right Rassemblement National (National Rally) and rightwing Les Républicains voted largely in favour, as did the overwhelming majority of President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance coalition, with the exception of a handful of deputies from the centrist MoDem party.
In the Assembly, there are marked differences between deputies who consider decolonisation a thing of the past – such as New Caledonian MP Nicolas Metzdorf, a member of Macron’s coalition who is known for his anti-independence stance – and those who point out that the UN still lists New Caledonia as a non-self-governing territory awaiting decolonisation, as reported in French news site Mediapart.
For young people in the archipelago, colonialism is not a thing of the past. “Despite a preference for local employment, many young people see opportunities slipping away from them to people in mainland France,” said Barthou, who conducted a field survey among New Caledonian youth last year. “This is just one example of the neocolonial logic to which New Caledonia remains prone today.”
1853
French Rear Admiral Auguste Febvrier-Despointes signs the deed of possession of New Caledonia on behalf of Napoleon III. The stated aim is to “secure for France a position in the Pacific required by the interests of the military and commercial navy”, and to establish a penal colony there from the 1860s.
1878
French troops put down mount a deadly response to a major Kanak revolt against land dispossession. In all, 200 Europeans and at least 600 insurgents were killed, some tribes were wiped off the map and 1,500 Kanaks were forced into exile.
1946
The archipelago becomes an overseas territory of France. The Kanak people receive French citizenship and the right to vote, to be granted gradually.
1984
The Kanak Socialist National Libération Front (FLNKS) is founded. The pro-independence party decides to create a provisional government for a future Kanaky (New Caledonia in the Kanak languages).
1987
A referendum on independence for New Caledonia sees a landslide victory (98% percent) for remaining part of France. Voter turnout was 59%.
1988
French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac promises to grant New Caledonia autonomy and divide it into four regions.
April 22 to May 5: Just two days before a territorial council vote, FLNKS militants seize the Ouvéa Island police station, killing four gendarmes and taking 26 other unarmed gendarmes hostage. The standoff ends in a French army assault in which 19 Kanak separatists and two soldiers are killed.
June 26: New Caledonia signs the Matignon Accords, starting a gradual process of self-determination and decolonisation.
1989
FLNKS head Jean-Marie Tjibaou is shot dead by Djubelly Wéa, a Kanak who blames Tjibaou for signing the Matignon Accords. Wéa is shot dead by one of Tjibaou's bodyguards.
1998
On May 5, the Nouméa Accord, signed by French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and the heads of the pro-union Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (RPCR) party and the FLNKS, sets out a 20-year decolonisation process. It is ratified by 71.86% of New Caledonians.
2018 to 2023
The anti-independence vote wins referendums in 2018 (56.7%), 2020 (53.3%) and 2021 (96.5%). Pro-independence parties contest the validity of the 2021 vote, which is marked by a low voter turnout due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Macron urges pro- and anti-independence parties to reach an agreement on the status of the archipelago by the end of 2023, with a view to a change in the French Constitution in 2024.
2024
On April 2, the French Senate approves a constitutional change enlarging the New Caledonian electorate to allow all natives and residents for at least 10 years the right to vote in provincial elections.
This article is an updated translation of the original in French.
