Reverse. This Monday, the Minister Delegate for Overseas Territories, Jean-François Carenco, declared that there would be no “project referendum” in mid-2023 in order to validate a new legal framework in New Caledonia, unlike what had been announced by the previous minister.
” We can not say : I come to listen on behalf of Mr. Darmanin, Mrs. Borne and the President of the Republic and say it’s like that (…). No, there will be no draft referendum there (…) in July/September 2023,” he told local channel Caledonia. “There is no referendum in June, because we will do it when we are ready,” the ministry told AFP.
Jean-François Carenco, whose mission letter given by the President of the Republic, is “to reconnect the threads of dialogue”, had indicated before his departure to New Caledonia for a five-day visit that “dialogue would take the time that need “.
Talks stalled
The former Minister of Overseas, Sébastien Lecornu, had promised a “project referendum” for June 2023, in order to validate a new legal framework for the territory. However, since the self-determination referendum won by supporters of France at the end of 2021, but boycotted by the separatists, discussions between the partners of the Nouméa agreement have stalled. A rapid return of separatists to the negotiating table seems all the more compromised as the separatist movement FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front) is currently going through a phase of internal turbulence.
Still on Caledonia, the minister recalled that the decolonization process initiated more than thirty years ago was coming to an end: “We were on a path, the Matignon-Oudinot agreements [1988]the Noumea Accord [1998] who were at the end of the journey, and then it happened that there were three referendums, which rejected independence. So we have to change to build this country. (…) And there, we are at a turning point, where we say to ourselves: do we do it or do we not do it? »
Jean-François Carenco, who had already estimated that “odds had been committed on both sides”, was optimistic about a resumption of dialogue: “We don’t talk to each other anymore. This is not how we move forward (…). I am sure there is a way. This country deserves an agreement (…) I think it’s possible”.
On the first day of his visit to the territory, the minister first met elected officials from all sides, before going to the Loyalty Islands and the North Province, two independence strongholds. He is due to visit the KNS metallurgical site in Koné on Tuesday, before returning to Noumea for a series of political talks on Wednesday and Thursday.