The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, could only call for “continue the dialogue”, by concluding, Friday, October 28 in Matignon, its “partners’ agreement” on the institutional future of New Caledonia, shunned by the separatists. Without saying that last word, she agreed, “the exchanges were incomplete due to the absence of some of the political forces”. And all present, she reported, recalled “the need to seek consensus”. But without waiting, the government believes that the long process that should lead to “the definition of a project for New Caledonia is now underway”.
Since the three referendums that have rejected independence since 2018, but the last of which was boycotted by the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) in December 2021, the path marked out by the 1998 Noumea Accord towards “full sovereignty” of the island is clogged, and consensus cannot be found. Matignon makes these ballots, validated by the Council of State, a prerequisite. But if the loyalists feel they have said “three times no” to independence and want to move on, the separatists camped on their advantage, to play the clock, by rejecting a ballot “illegitimate”.
burning questions
Ten working groups will be organized by High Commissioner Patrice Faure, in Noumea, on the following themes: institutional issues, equal opportunities and social cohesion, economic development and major investments, nickel, energy sovereignty, food sovereignty and land issues, values common identity and reconciliation, regional integration. The Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin, who intends to take control of the file, will in principle go to New Caledonia at the end of November with his Minister Delegate Jean-François Carenco to set up these meetings. The government hopes to complete the work « mi-2023 ».
The Paris meeting was not the showcase hoped for by the executive. It took place too early and its format involving economic circles was too broad, judge the separatists. Burning institutional issues, in particular the transfer of sovereign powers and the necessary redefinition of the New Caledonian electorate by 2024, will find their usual circles outside the eyes of civil society, taking “in an ad hoc political format”a promis Elisabeth Borne.
Mr. Darmanin did not attend all the discussions. But, in the eyes of a loyalist camp very right and worried about the economic and social depression of the island, he is the suitable man, who succeeded in establishing his authority on the file. Inviting the hardest to “declarative sobriety”reminding others that “local political consensus remains a prerequisite for national consensus”and asking everyone not to immediately block discussions with ” the rock “ of the ultra-sensitive reform of the electorate, he positively surprised during the bilateral meetings on Thursday by his knowledge of the subject.
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