New Caledonia has just lost a political figure. Jean Lèques, emblematic mayor of Nouméa from 1986 to 2014, died at the age of 90, arousing many tributes for this ardent defender of the maintenance of the island in France.
Weakened for several years, he died “peacefully” at his home, we learned on Wednesday from his relatives. Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to this “life dedicated to the service of our country, of New Caledonia, and of peace”.
Flags at half mast
“Jean Lèques devoted his life to New Caledonia and will forever remain an eminent figure,” tweeted the Minister of Overseas Territories, Yaël Braun-Pivet. Sonia Lagarde, who succeeded him as mayor of Nouméa in 2014, hailed “with the greatest respect” his “commitment” and his “requirement in the service of his city”, while the flags were lowered at half-mast. town hall, the seat of government, Congress and the South Province.
The collegial government, of which Jean Lèques was the first president from May 1999 to March 2001 after the signing of the Nouméa agreement, for its part paid tribute to “a man of convictions, of great culture and of a memory out of the ordinary”, who “devoted a real passion to New Caledonia”. Withdrawn from political life since 2014, he was one of the signatories of this agreement which organizes decolonization in stages.
“At a time when the first President of the Collegial Government of New Caledonia, stemming from the Nouméa Agreement, is passing away, an agreement which is coming to an end, it is up to us to collectively build the future institutions of New Caledonia in the respect (…) of the choice, freely consented and expressed three times, of the Caledonians. In this, the memory of Jean Lèques obliges us, ”welcomed Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday. A man of dialogue, Jean Lèques had also signed the Matignon agreements, which brought peace to the archipelago in 1988.
Elected for the first time in 1967 to the Territorial Assembly, Jean Lèques was re-elected in this institution, renamed Congress in 1989, without interruption until 2009. This Christian democrat had first campaigned for the Union Calédonienne (UC) , progressive and multiracial, before joining the ranks of the Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République (RPCR, affiliated to the RPR) in 1978 when the UC took up the cause of independence.
For Caledonians, he will remain “Fifils”
One of his last political commitments was the presidency of a “committee of wise men”, set up by former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, to ensure that the campaign for the first referendum on independence in 2018 ran smoothly. This committee also officiated in the 2020 and 2021 referendums.
Born on August 31, 1931 in the Vallée du Tir district in Nouméa, which he never left, Jean Lèques, nicknamed “Fifils” by all Caledonians, came from a family present on “le Caillou” since the end of the 19th century. After studying law in mainland France, he opened a notary’s office in Noumea. Honorary mayor of the city since 2014, he had been raised to the rank of grand officer of the Legion of Honor by Emmanuel Macron who had given him this decoration in May 2018.