The French president landed today in the capital, Noumea, and hinted that the state of emergency could be lifted after the deployment of 3,000 police units. Tensions between loyalists and independentists are intertwined with the crisis in the nickel industry, which mainly affects the indigenous Kanak population.
Noumea () – The French police forces, made up of 3,000 men, will remain in New Caledonia “as long as necessary”, declared President Emmanuel Macron, who landed this morning in Noumea, the capital, to try to restore order and security. peace after the clashes between “independence supporters” and “loyalists” in recent weeks. “This is the absolute priority,” added Macron, who, after paying tribute to the victims (six people died in the violence), met with leaders local politicians and businessmen. The state of emergency imposed by Paris could be lifted, Macron hinted, but the political future of New Caledonia, under French control since 1853, is a thorny issue that the French president must resolve.
The revolt of recent days was organized by the most radical sectors following the French National Assembly’s proposal to allow foreign residents in New Caledonia for at least 10 years to vote in local elections. A measure that could further reduce the political weight of the indigenous population.
The Kanaks are around 40% of the country’s 270,000 inhabitants, while the “Europeans” are a quarter of the population and are in turn divided between the descendants of the settlers (called “Caldoches”) and the French who arrived in recent years (sometimes derogatorily called “metro” or “zoreill”). 11% of the population declares themselves mestizo and affirms that they belong to more than one community, according to data collected by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies from France.
Since the late 1990s, more than 40,000 French people have moved to New Caledonia and today represent 20% of the local population, but they are excluded from provincial elections because the electoral rolls have been frozen in their 1998 status, according to reports. established in the Noumea Accords. If the constitutional reform were definitively approved (so far it has received the approval of the Senate and the National Assembly separately), 25 thousand residents would obtain the right to vote to elect the representatives of the Provincial Assemblies and Congress, who in turn They elect the government.
The divisions are also geographical. The northern provinces are predominantly Kanak, while the southern island of Grande Terre, where the capital Noumea is located, is mainly inhabited by people of European origin. The 140 islands that formed New Caledonia in the 19th century were used by France as penal colonies: at the end of the century they housed nearly 20,000 prisoners (mainly political opponents) who were subjected to forced labor, and between 1897 and 1903 (the period of the “Grand Cantonnement”) the indigenous people were moved to reserves on the smaller islands to make room for settlers.
New Caledonia became an “overseas territory” in 1946. In 1984 a coalition of pro-independence parties formed the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) and declared independence, starting a civil conflict that ended four years later. The FLNKS has since entered into dialogue with Paris, but opposes unfreezing the electoral lists.
Some believe the violence of the protests was fomented by the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), an organization that was formed in late 2023 and described by New Caledonia High Commissioner Louis Le Franc as “an organization of criminals who carry out clear acts of violence, with the intention of killing. But the Kanak tribal chiefs have given their support to the organization, stating that “it is not a terrorist or mafia group as some political authorities would have us believe.” In a recent statement, the CCAT declared that the attacks “committed against businesses, companies, buildings and structures are not unnecessary,” but are the expression of the “invisibles of societies.”
The political factions opposed to independence are defined as “loyal” and are located on the right of the political spectrum, despite the fact that there are different currents within them.
The Kanak youth, who were on the front line during the protests, remain to this day “extremely marginalized” economically and socially, explained Mathias Chauchat, FLNKS advisor and professor at the University of New Caledonia. The highest qualification obtained by 46% of Kanaks is a high school diploma, compared to 11% of “Europeans”, he added, stating that indigenous people feel discouraged because they see that the French occupy the best jobs. .
The economic difficulties of recent years have also influenced the protests. Unlike other Pacific island countries, New Caledonia is not poor, but its economy depends almost entirely on nickel mining, of which the country is the world’s third largest producer. Nickel is used in electric car batteries, but especially in steel alloys. “Nickel is a strategic resource, necessary to build, supply and deploy modern armies and fuel the economies that support them. “This was already true in the 19th century and, with the advent of green technology, it is even more true now,” explains Cullen Hendrixfrom the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
But the fall in demand, the decline in prices in recent years (in 2023 the price of nickel fell by 45%) and the growing competition with Indonesia (the main source of supply for China) have resulted in an industrial crisis that It especially affects the Kanak population involved in the sector. The three main companies generate, directly and indirectly, around 13 thousand jobs. The French government was negotiating an aid package for mining companies as several international partners announced they were withdrawing, but talks stalled due to tensions between pro-independence and loyalist parties.
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