2023-09-24 11:44:49
New Caledonia: Minister Sonia Backès beaten in the second round, a separatist will sit in the Senate for the first time
No catch-up in the second round of the senatorial elections for Minister Sonia Backès. The Secretary of State for Citizenship was defeated by the independentist Robert Wienie Xowie by 307 votes to 246.
Emmanuel Macron with Sonia Backès, during a Bir-Hakeim ceremony, in Nouméa, July 25, 2023. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
The mayor of Lifou, a member of the Caledonian Union, becomes the first outspoken supporter of the independence of New Caledonia to join the Luxembourg Palace.
Third in the first round in which the dissident candidate Les Républicains Georges Naturel was elected, Sonia Backès (Renaissance) did not manage to attract many electors in the second round, losing to the candidate of the Kanak Liberation Front ( FLNKS), which entered the Senate.
This is a first setback for the presidential party in these senatorial elections, while Ms. Backès was the only government representative to candidate during this election. The president of the southern province of New Caledonia, who was seeking a first term, suffered a serious setback with the arrival of the separatists in the Senate, a few days after a meeting at the Elysée between loyalists and separatists, with the hope of finding a agreement on the status of the archipelago by the end of the year, with a view to a constitutional revision at the beginning of 2024.
In the archipelago, the two outgoing senators Pierre Frogier and Gérard Poadja were defeated.
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