Macron annuls the electoral reform in New Caledonia that caused riots and several deaths

The president of France, Emmanuel Macronhas announced the suspension of the controversial electoral reform in New Caledonia that grants the vote to French citizens and that caused serious disturbances and at least eight dead.

“The constitutional project on the electorate in New Caledonia has been suspended“Macron announced this Wednesday in a press conference three days after calling early legislative elections, which will be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.

The conflict broke out on May 13 after the debate in the French National Assembly on an electoral reform that grants the vote to French citizens. The text, finally approved and which Macron wanted to ratify this June, proposes the right to vote for citizens French people who have been residing in the territory for at least 10 years.

This reform has been rejected by the independentistswhich control four of the five instances of the autonomous territorial government, since they consider that will dilute the weight of the natives and the number of people coming from abroad, in particular from metropolitan France, will increase.

The majority of the independentistas, who They are of Aboriginal origin known as kanaks, and especially the independence alliance of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), have denounced the proposal as a blow to their aspirations at a particularly critical moment in relations with France, after the alliance boycotted the last independence referendum of 2021, which ended in victory for the unionists.

The independence supporters have been mobilized for almost a month to demand the definitive withdrawal of the constitutional reform that increases the electoral body and which they consider harms them because it includes non-aboriginals. The island held three referendums (2018, 2020 and 2021), all of them against independence, in compliance with the Noumea agreements.

Eight dead

The revolts of this French overseas territory in the South Pacific 17,000 kilometers from Paris have caused eight dead and they forced Macron to travel to the archipelago at the end of May to try to calm things down with the opening of a dialogue table as long as the riots in the territory ended, which has also caused dozens of injuries and damage to public and private buildings worth several hundred million euros.

The Government even declared the state of emergency In New Caledonia, it sent a thousand police and gendarmes to reinforce the 1,700 already present in the territory and placed the international airport and ports under military protection.

This territory, made up of three very separate archipelagos, is also characterized by strong social inequalities and faces an economic downturn due to the fall in the international price of nickel, the main source of income.

He tourism is not so developed as in the other French territory in the Pacific, Polynesia.