2023-07-24 05:00:33
Emmanuel Macron plants a tree with members of the family of the nineteen Kanaks killed at the Gossanah cave in 1988, on the island of Ouvéa (New Caledonia), May 5, 2018. ELIOT BOLNDET / SIPA
Return to New Caledonia for Emmanuel Macron. As part of his trip to Oceania, the President of the Republic is due to arrive in Nouméa on Monday July 24 – from where he has planned to carry out an interview, which will be broadcast during the 1 p.m. newscast, on TF1 and France 2 – for a two-day visit under the watchwords of “gathering” and “trust”, surrounded by a Caledonian delegation, with the head of government, Louis Mapou, and business leaders. It will then continue its route on July 27 towards Vanuatu, before reaching Papua New Guinea on July 28 to mark France’s commitment to the Pacific.
In May 2018, it was for the Head of State to launch the series of referendums on independence provided for in the Nouméa agreement of 1998, which transferred broad powers to new territorial institutions. “France would be less beautiful without New Caledonia”he encouraged then.
Read also (2018): In Nouméa, Macron pleads for the maintenance of a close relationship between France and New Caledonia
Five years later, in Paris, the executive maintains that the future of the “Caillou” will be accomplished ” in France “, but nothing could be clarified as to the final status of the territory, always promised to self-determination. After three referendums, the last of which, at the end of 2021, boycotted by the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), the political scene remains irremediably split between the two political blocs, independence and non-independence. New Caledonia has known seventeen governments since 1999, and the population massively rejects the inertia of its political leaders.
Revise the electorate
Should we return to Nouméa while the discussions continue? The two camps are invited to Paris at the end of August, by and with the government of Elisabeth Borne, for a first meeting “trilateral” on the status of the archipelago since… October 2019. A FLNKS steering committee will give or not its mandate on July 29 to go there. Emmanuel Macron will therefore encourage, undoubtedly firmly, each other to overcome their blockages. “Coming now is a way of saying, ‘I’m not doing the deal'”advances an adviser to Ms. Borne.
The Head of State will begin by talking about youth and climate on Tuesday July 25. Before, the next day, to unite the political forces, « ensemble », according to the Elysée. He will deliver a speech on the Place de la Paix in Nouméa, in front of the statue of Jacques Lafleur and Jean-Marie Tjibaou, the artisans of civil peace in 1988. All Caledonians have been invited to attend.
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