New French PM Wants New Caledonia Talks To Resume This Month

Wednesday, 15 January 2025, 8:56 pm
Article: RNZ

Patrick Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific Desk

French Prime minister François Bayrou has told the French Parliament he wants political talks for New Caledonia to resume this month.

In his maiden speech of general policy announcing his government's roadmap, in front of France's National Assembly (Lower House) in Paris, Bayrou said he wanted political talks on New Caledonia's political future to resume this month and come to a conclusion before the end of March.

"I wish that the political process resumes with negotiations that will have to come to fruition at the end of this quarter," Bayrou told French MPs.

"I will invite, this January, (New Caledonia's) political forces to come to Paris and open those negotiations and I will ask our Minister for Overseas to follow up on this particular matter.

"The events of May 2024 have plunged this territory into a profound slump."

However, he said he believed "women and men of good will can find innovative ways for the good of all (New) Caledonians".

The March 31, 2025 tentative deadline had been mentioned before Christmas after meetings between New Caledonia's Congress members and the Presidents of both French Houses of Parliament Gérard Larcher (Senate) and Yaël Braun-Pivet (National Assembly).

During a recent visit to New Caledonia, in October 2024, Larcher and Braun-Pivet repeatedly made references to a notion of "shared sovereignty" for New Caledonia's future.

However, one of the main components of New Caledonia's pro-independence camp, the Union Calédonienne (UC), earlier this month said nothing of that sort could take place before the Congress of New Caledonia's pro-independence movement umbrella, the FLNKS, which is scheduled to be held some time in late January.

Since its last meeting, in late August last year, the FLNKS has displayed deep divisions between UC (regarded as a hard-line component) and "moderate" pro-independence parties such as PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) who form a caucus called "Union Nationale pour l'Indépendance" (UNI) at the local Congress.

On the pro-France side, several hard-line leaders, during a press conference held on Sunday, said in terms of future negotiations, they were ready to talk, but only with the moderate pro-independence leaders and not Union Calédonienne.

French MP and leader of Générations NC, Nicolas Metzdorf, told local media that in terms of talks and local alliances, "it would be natural that a majority should be formed with UNI, taking into account that it did not take part in the May 13 riots".

"But we will not support any alliance with Union Calédonienne, because some of its members have contributed to creating the CCAT", Générations NC leaders said.

The CCAT (Field Action Coordination Cell) was set up by UC late 2023 and tasked to organise marches and demonstrations in New Caledonia, which later degenerated into the 13 May, 2024 riots.

Its leader, Christian Téin, was arrested in June 2024 and has since remained in custody in a mainland France jail, pending his trial on a list of criminal-related charges.

During its August 2024 congress, to which both PALIKA and UPM components decided not to take part, a UC-dominated FLNKS chose Téin as its leader.

The Manuel Valls challenge

As part of France's new government, Bayrou's minister for Overseas is Manuel Valls, himself a former Socialist Prime Minister.

Valls, since he was appointed in December 2024, pledged to re-launch talks with New Caledonia's stakeholders concerning the French Pacific territory's political future towards a greater form of self-governance.

He said his approach for negotiations would draw inspiration from one of his political mentors, Michel Rocard, who, in 1988, as Socialist President François Mitterrand's head of government, was one of the main driving forces behind the signing of the Matignon Accord that effectively put an end to half a decade of quasi civil war in New Caledonia.

At the time aged 26, Valls was one of Rocard's young political advisers.

The 1988 Matignon deal was signed by the leaders of the French Pacific territory's antagonist camps, Jacques Lafleur (for the pro-French loyalists, who want New Caledonia to remain French) and Jean-Marie Tjibaou (for the pro-independence camp and FLNKS, New Caledonia' Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front).

Tjibaou was shot by a pro-independence hard-line supporter one year later, in 1989.

His son, Emmanuel, was 13 at the time.

Emmanuel Tjibaou decided to enter politics in 2024.

At 48, in July 2024, he was elected an MP representing New Caledonia in the French National Assembly after the June 2024 French Parliament's dissolution triggered the snap election.

A few months later, in November 2024, Tjibaou was also elected President of Union Calédonienne.

Instability also in New Caledonia

Under Barnier's government, commitments were made to open a credit line of up to €1 billion Euros to assist with New Caledonia's reconstruction, on the condition that key structural reforms are launched.

The French loans were also strongly opposed by New Caledonia's congress, which recently sent a bipartisan delegation to Paris to advocate for a grant-based assistance, without reimbursable funds, over a five-year period.

The controversy was believed to be one of the main causes of opposition to pro-independence Louis Mapou's government.

In late December, Mapou's government was brought down by a coalition of moderate pro-France parties Calédonie Ensemble and Eveil Océanien.

The new President of the government, elected in early January by the local Congress, is Alcide Ponga, who is also the President of pro-France party Rassemblement (LR).

After initial attempts to elect a vice-president (a position which, according to usual practice, is held by the opposition, presently the pro-independence camp) have failed last week, the Congress is supposed to meet again later this week.

According to New Caledonia's organic law, the government is deemed to be in working order seven days after its president's election, even without a vice-president.

Another key item on the agenda is the allotment of government portfolios for the 11-member cabinet.

Centre-right François Bayrou, 72, became France's Prime minister on 13 December 2024, after his predecessor Michel Barnier was ousted in a motion of no confidence on 4 December, three months after taking office.

In his own speech of general policy, in early September 2024, Barnier also mentioned New Caledonia and the fact that a controversial Constitutional Bill to change the rules of eligibility for New Caledonia's local election, had been scrapped.

Barnier also reaffirmed France's commitment to support New Caledonia in its recovery, after massive destruction occurred following the insurrectional riots that broke out in mid-May 2024.

The riots had caused some €2.2 billion Euros in damage, several hundred businesses were destroyed by fire and looting, and 14 people have died.

In his speech on Tuesday, Bayrou did not mention any financial aspect of the French assistance package to New Caledonia.

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