Patrick
Decloitre, Correspondent French Pacific
Desk
The signing of a new agreement on New Caledonia’s
political and financial future has triggered a fresh wave of
reactions from across the French territory’s political
chessboard.
The “Elysée-Oudinot” agreement was signed
on Monday 19 January, in the presence of French President
Emmanuel Macron as well as most of New Caledonia’s
politicians.
But the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and
Socialist National Liberation Front), one of the main
components of the pro-independence movement, had
chosen not to travel to Paris.
The new deal, signed
by parties represented at New Caledonia’s Congress (its
local parliament), including members of the moderate
pro-independence PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM
(Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), who have split from
FLNKS, all signed the agreement.
PALIKA and UPM are
formed into a Parliamentary caucus called “UNI” (Union
Nationale pour l’Indépendance).
The Elysée-Oudinot
text was described as being a “complement” bearing
“clarifications” to a previous agreement project, signed in
July 2025 in the small city of Bougival (west of
Paris).
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The FLNKS, even though it initially signed the
Bougival text, rejected
it in bloc a few days after returning to New
Caledonia.
As French President Macron called
all politicians back to the table to refine the July 2025
talks, FLNKS announced it would not travel to Paris,
saying the project which would serve as the basis for
further talks did not meet their short-term goals of full
sovereignty.
They said the Bougival text and all
related documents were in substance “lures” of independence
and that they regarded the French state as being responsible
for a “rupture of dialogue”.
As the Bougival initial
text, its Elysée-Oudinot complement maintains the notion of
creating a “state of New Caledonia”, its correlated
“nationality” and introduces a new set of commitments from
France, including a package to re-launch the local economy,
severely damaged as a result of the
riots that broke out in May 2024.
The new text
also mentions granting more powers to each of New
Caledonia’s three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty
Islands group), including in terms of revenue collection by
way of taxes.
This, the FLNKS protested, could erode
the powers of New Caledonian provinces and reinforce
economic and social inequalities between
them.
Reacting to the signing in Paris in their
absence, the FLNKS, in
a media release on Wednesday, condemned and rejected the
new text “unequivocally”.
FLNKS President Christian
Téin, in the release, said the new agreement endorses a
“passage en force” (forceful passage) and is “incompatible”
with the way the FLNKS envisages Kanaky’s “decolonisation
path”, including in the way it is defined under the United
Nations decolonisation process.
It also criticises a
document signed “without the indigenous people” of New
Caledonia.
The pro-independence party also expressed
its disapproval of what it calls a
“pseudo-accord”.
“We will use every political tool
available to us to re-alert, again and again the public”,
FLNKS politburo member Gilbert Tyuienon told public
broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première at the
weekend.
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou
had reiterated, even after the signing in Paris, that the
door remained open to FLNKS.
In reaction to the
signing, other parties have also expressed their respective
points of view.
“Why didn’t they come [to Paris] to
defend their positions, since they were invited?” Southern
Province President (pro-France) Sonia Backès wrote on
social networks.
“Does UNI not represent the Kanak
people too?” she added.
French Minister for Overseas
Naïma Moutchou said this new set of agreements reflected a
“shared will to look at the future together”.
“Now the
territory can walk on its two legs”.
Some of the
pro-France parties, who want New Caledonia to remain a part
of France, have however acknowledged that even though the
new documents were signed, the road ahead remained rocky in
terms of its implementation in the French Parliament,
through a local referendum and related constitutional
amendments.
“We’ve done the easiest, the hardest part
remains” – Metzdorf
New Caledonia’s MP at the French
National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf said a huge challenge
still remains ahead.
“We’ve done the easiest, the
hardest part remains… This is to obtain the [French]
Parliament’s support, both Houses, to enact the accords in
the French Constitution.”
Following a very tight
schedule in the coming weeks, the texts will be submitted to
the vote of both Parliament Houses, first separately, then
in a joint chamber format (the Congress, for constitutional
amendment purposes).
Then the text is also to be
submitted to New Caledonia’s population approval through a
referendum-like “consultation”.
In a way of foretaste
of what promises to be heated debates in coming weeks, with
a backdrop of strong divisions in the French Parliament,
Moutchou and far-left MP Bastien Lachaud (La France
Insoumise, LFI) waged a war of words on Tuesday in the
National Assembly.
Responding to Lachaud’s accusations
which echoed those from FLNKS, Moutchou denounced the
“passage en force” claim and the absence of
“consensus”.
“FLNKS was never excluded from anything.
It was invited, it was approached, it was awaited, just like
the other ones. It chose not to turn up,” Moutchou
said.
“The politics of empty chair was never conducive
to a compromise,” she said as Assembly Speaker Yaël
Braun-Pivet had to call the LFI caucus back to
order.
Strong financial component
Some of the
financial aspects of the deals include a five-year
“reconstruction” plan for New Caledonia, for a total of
€2.2 billion, presented to New Caledonia’s politicians by
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
This chapter
also comes with revisiting previous French loans for over
€1 billion, which New Caledonia found almost impossible to
repay (with an indebtedness rate of 360 percent).
The
loans, under the agreement’s financial chapter, would be
renegotiated, re-scheduled and possibly converted into
non-refundable grants.
Meanwhile a two-year repayment
holiday (2026-2027) would be applied, while a far-reaching
reform programme is expected to be pursued.
“What
people really expected was (economic) prospects. This is the
main part of this accord, the economic refoundation,”
commented Vaimu’a Muliava, from Wallis-based Eveil Océanien
party after the Paris talks.
The new financial
arrangements would also provide a much-needed lifebuoy to
critically threatened mechanisms in New Caledonia, such as
its retirement scheme or the power supply
company.
More injections for the nickel
industry
Another €200 million is also earmarked to
bail out several nickel mining companies facing critical
hardships.
This includes assistance aimed at
supporting business and employment for French historical
Société le Nickel (SLN), Prony Resources and NMC (Nickel
Mining Company, which has ties to Korea’s POSCO).
The
French government has also pledged to follow-up on a request
to New Caledonia’s nickel mining and refining declared a
“strategic” sector by the European Union.
“The
agreement’s economic chapter was as necessary as the
political one,” said New Caledonia’s President Alcide Ponga
after the signing.
Another cash injection was directed
to this year’s budget for New Caledonia, which benefits from
a direct cash injection of €58
million.
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