The letter was expected, it reached them Monday, October 10: all Caledonian elected officials and representatives are invited together, on October 28 in Paris, by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, who considers “necessary to engage in tripartite discussions on the future of New Caledonia”. A very first meeting of the “partners’ convention” must therefore be held at the Hôtel de Matignon. Its success remains uncertain.
Since the third referendum planned under the 1998 Nouméa agreement on the accession of the territory to full sovereignty, boycotted by the separatists on December 12, 2021, the State, separatist movements and non-separatist groups have not spoken to each other. The Caledonian institutional file is blocked. The “no” to independence certainly won at the end of 2021, as in 2018 and 2020, at 96.5% this time, but with 56.1% abstention. the “referendum of the French State”as dismissed by the president of the Caledonian congress, Roch Wamytan, has not done its job, after years of consultations and crises.
Will the invitation make it possible to renew the dialogue? The executive is calling around the table “the representatives designated by the presidents of the government of New Caledonia, of the congress, of the three provinces, of the two associations of mayors, of the customary Senate, of the economic, social and environmental council and of the three consular chambers, as well as parliamentarians”. The signatories of the Nouméa agreements are also invited.
Cautious, Matignon warns that “the agenda of the partners’ agreement, devoted to the definition of the modalities, the calendar and the themes of the tripartite discussions on the future of New Caledonia will be communicated later”. It will be a “method meeting” to the ” measured ambition”, specifies an adviser to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin who will lead these discussions. About ten working groups could be created, on economic, tax, social subjects and the transfer of skills between the State and the territory. Mr. Darmanin would install them in Noumea at the beginning of November.
“Reignite a dynamic”
The leader of the loyalist right, Sonia Backès, now Secretary of State for Citizenship, will be present on October 28 as president of the southern province of New Caledonia. His double hat is one of the elements of tension with the separatists. During an exchange with her, Monday morning, Emmanuel Macron confirmed Mme Backès in his government post. But as assured in Noumea, mid-September, Jean-François Carenco, the Minister Delegate for Overseas: “Madame Backès does not take care of the Caledonian file” on behalf of the state.
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