Macron says extra security to stay in riot-hit New Caledonia as long as needed
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SYDNEY/PARIS – Police reinforcements in New Caledonia will stay as long as needed, President Emmanuel Macron said on May 23 after viewing areas devastated by deadly riots triggered by a contested electoral reform in the French-ruled Pacific island.
His hastily arranged visit comes after six people were killed in riots
“In the coming hours and days, massive new operations will be scheduled where necessary, and republican order in its entirety will be re-established because there is no other choice,” Mr Macron said during a meeting with political and business leaders of the island in the capital, Noumea.
Roads across the island remained blocked by protesters’ barricades on May 23, and residents shared advice on social media on safe routes to find food, petrol and medicine.
Mr Macron earlier flew by helicopter over areas devastated by arson, where bulldozers worked to clear the rubble. Mayors from these worst-hit suburbs joined his meeting at France’s High Commission, along with pro-French and pro-independence leaders.
Describing the riots as “an unprecedented insurrection whose degree of violence no one would have anticipated”, Mr Macron said the additional security totalling 3,000 personnel would remain, even during the Paris Olympics from July 26 to Aug 11 if required.
It could take “several days” before calm returns to the riot-hit overseas French territory due to the current context of sustained political tensions, he said.
“Our target is to take back full control of the various areas that have been hit by disorder and violence,” said Mr Macron.
He said he had decided to push back plans for the electoral reform by several weeks.
The contentious electoral reform would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in provincial elections.
Paris says this is needed to improve democracy on the island, where almost a quarter of the population identifies as European, mainly French.
But protesters fear that the move, already passed by lawmakers in mainland France some 16,000km away, will dilute the votes of indigenous Kanaks, who comprise 40 per cent of the island’s population of 270,000 people, and make it harder for any future referendum on independence to pass.
As it is a constitutional reform, it requires a meeting of both Houses of the French Parliament for it to be ratified, and Mr Macron has yet to announce a date for that.
Peace the top priority
Speaking to a group of youth, Mr Macron gave no sign of wanting to backtrack on the reform.
“We’re a funny country. In France, foreigners (if they are EU citizens) can vote in local elections. But people that have been here (in New Caledonia) more than 10 years are told, ‘You cannot vote’,” he said.
Mr Macron added that he would not allow the result of the last referendum on New Caledonia’s independence, in which citizens voted to remain part of France, to be called into question.
Indigenous Kanak political leaders at the meeting with Mr Macron included the President of New Caledonia’s government Louis Mapou and Congress president Roch Wamytan, who was a signatory to the 1998 Noumea Accord that ended a decade of violence by outlining a path to gradual autonomy.
The expiry of the accord in 2021 and a Kanak boycott of an independence referendum held during the Covid-19 pandemic have since created a political impasse.
Mr Wamytan leads Caledonian Union, the largest party within the pro-indepedence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) bloc.
Before the meeting, FLNKS issued a statement saying it expected Mr Macron to make a strong announcement that could “breathe new life” into dialogue between the accord partners.
Mr Macron said the aim of the meeting, which also includes French loyalists, was to get all parties back to the table.
“Calming down cannot mean turning back the clock. Calming down cannot mean disregarding the popular expression that has already taken place,” he said.
Coming out of the meeting with Mr Macron, Mr Georges Naturel, a New Caledonian representative in France’s Senate and the mayor of Dumbea where stores were set on fire, said society needed to rebuild in a different way.
Mr Macron had told the meeting there would be more security forces coming.
“We are all convinced that this will not be enough. We also need strong, political messages,” said Mr Naturel, who is from the conservative Les Republicains party.
New Caledonia is the world’s No. 3 nickel miner but the sector is in crisis and one in five residents lives below the poverty threshold in a territory with huge economic inequalities.
Thousands of tourists have been stranded by the unrest, with France, Australia and New Zealand organising flights to extract hundreds of people. REUTERS
