PARIS — The main pro-independence alliance in the French territory of New Caledonia officially rejected late Tuesday a Paris-led proposal to create a new status for the Pacific Ocean archipelago, effectively torpedoing the agreement barring a major turnaround.
A deal signed last month foresaw New Caledonia becoming a new state, but not entirely independent from France. While remaining under the purview of the French constitution, New Caledonia would have been granted attributes closer to statehood. It would be able to control its own foreign affairs, and its population would hold both French and Caledonian citizenships, rather than just French, as is currently the case.
The deal was signed in a suburb of Paris by representatives of both pro- and anti-independence Caledonians — including a negotiator from the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS).
However, the agreement did not include provisions for a new referendum on New Caledonia’s independence — a breaking point for the FLNKS political bureau, despite its negotiator’s previous approval.
Dominique Fochi, a member of the bureau, said in a press conference that the agreement was “incompatible with the fundamentals and achievements of [the FLNKS’] struggle.”
New Caledonia has been plagued by an economic crisis, tensions between its communities and political violence, while increasingly becoming a target for foreign interference, most notably from Azerbaijan. It is a strategically important territory for France thanks to high levels of natural resources, including nickel, and by serving as a gateway to the Indo-Pacific.
Tensions reached fever pitch last spring when riots erupted in opposition to a planned electoral reform that would have diminished the native Kanak population’s electoral weight by allowing Caledonians who had more recently settled on the territory to vote in local elections. Fourteen people died and property damage was estimated at more than €2 billion.
Marie-Pierre Goyetche, another member of the political bureau, warned that the FLNKS would not allow the state to “force through” the agreement and called for the organization of a “peaceful” opposition to any such attempt.
France’s Minister for Overseas Territories Manuel Valls had anticipated the agreement’s rejection in a Facebook post Sunday, saying he regretted that the FLNKS had turned its back on a “historic compromise.”
Valls also said he would travel to New Caledonia next week in a last-ditch effort to salvage the accord, warning that the state would remain “a guarantor of justice for all and of the exercise of democracy, which cannot survive under the threat of violence.”
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