Despite the ongoing wave of violence in New Caledonia, the constitutional reform on the French overseas territory's electorate will move to the next legislative step, following a favorable vote by the Assemblée Nationale on Wednesday, May 15. The government's bill, already passed by the Sénat, received 351 votes in favor and 153 against, with left-wing MPs opposing its adoption.
At the heart of the reform is the expansion of the electorate for New Caledonia's provincial elections to include all citizens who have been residents of the country for 10 years. This measure has been contested by the territory's pro-independence movement, which fears a loss of electoral influence for the Kanak people.
"This could have untold consequences for civil peace," said La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left) MP Bastien Lachaud. "You will bear the consequences of your actions," said Mathilde Panot, LFI group president at the Assemblée Nationale, to the government. "This text is a step (...) don't give the impression [that a] global agreement is impossible," said Philippe Dunoyer (Renaissance, Macron's centrist party), referring to the agreement between New Caledonia's loyalists and independentists that the government hopes to achieve.
"It will be a question of, collectively and responsibly, finding an agreement that goes beyond the mere unfreezing [of the electorate] and takes the progress made and the aspirations of all people into account," wrote Emmanuel Macron on this issue on Wednesday, in a letter to New Caledonian representatives. In the "absence" of such an agreement, "Congress would meet before the end of June" to vote on the constitutional review, he added.
The French president added that he had asked Prime Minister Gabriel Attal and Interior and French Overseas Territories Minister Gérald Darmanin to meet with "representatives of the independentist and non-independentist political forces in Paris" to "create the conditions for a dialogue involving both parties." The government hopes that this meeting can take place as soon as possible.
If an agreement is reached on a broader constitutional revision, a "new constitutional bill" will be presented by the government, according to Macron. Discussions could focus on the organization of future self-determination and the distribution of powers between the provinces and the government of New Caledonia.
'Wrong method'
The reform voted provides for broadening the electorate for New Caledonia's provincial elections. Currently, the electorate is limited to voters registered on lists from a previous 1998 consultation and their descendants. This effectively excludes residents who arrived after 1998 and many natives.
Some 25,000 voters could be added to the electoral roll under the new text, according to New Caledonia's Institute of Statistics. "It is no longer acceptable that today, the proportion of voters excluded from the right to vote in provincial and congressional elections is close to 20%," said LR MP Philippe Gosselin.
In the Sénat, a mechanism was added to allow the suspension of this constitutional reform if a local agreement were reached up to 10 days before the next elections, which would then make the constitutional review unnecessary.
However, left-wing MPs and independents from Libertés, indépendants, outre-mer et territoires (overseas territories parliamentary group, LIOT) have accused the government of using the "wrong method" in adopting the text, which they say would give loyalists more clout against independentists, even without its ratification by the territory's congress. This enlargement has been hotly contested by the latter, which has accused the government of wanting to force the issue to "further marginalize the indigenous Kanak people," who accounted for 41.2% of the archipelago's population in the 2019 census, according to France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE).
Second consecutive night of vandalism
A wave of extreme violence has erupted in New Caledonia since Monday night. Stores have been looted, houses have been burnt down and police have been shot at. The French territory in the South Pacific is facing its highest level of tension since the 1980s.
In the Nouméa area, the curfew decided by the French High Commissioner came into force on Tuesday evening at 6:00 pm local time (9:00 am in Paris), but as night fell, acts of vandalism resumed in earnest. An Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent noted that several of the capital's public infrastructures had been burned. Wrecked or burnt-out cars were also visible everywhere in the streets, while trucks carrying mobile gendarme units, among other law enforcement officers, criss-crossed the city. On Wednesday morning, food shortages were rampant, leading to long queues in front of stores. Some stores in Nouméa were overrun, while others were virtually empty, with no bread or rice left to sell, as AFP's correspondent observed.
Pro-independence groups have condemned the violence that has erupted across New Caledonia since Monday, and have called for "appeasement" while also condemning the Assemblée's vote on the constitutional reform bill. The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which stated its aim was “not to starve and aggravate the already difficult social and economic situation of families,” issued a statement calling for “the blockades to be lifted to allow [the] population free access to products, services and basic necessities."
A leading figure of the non-independentist faction, former junior minister Sonia Backès, has denounced the anti-white racism of protesters who set fire to the house of her father, a 70-year-old-man who was exfiltrated by the elite GIGN gendarme unit.