France: riots in New Caledonia after Paris wants to broaden the electoral base. The army is deployed
Despite appeals for calm from pro-independence leaders, New Caledonia experienced a second night of violence between Tuesday 1 5 and Wednesday 16 May. Two people were killed during the clashes, in addition to a policeman who died a few hours ago. Now the government has decided to deploy the army , which will be tough, to restore order. Blocked tTikTok on the island.
On Wednesday 15 May, the National Assembly in Paris adopted the constitutional reform project aimed at expanding the electorate eligible for provincial elections in New Caledonia. Since 1998 and the Nouméa Agreement, the electorate had been frozen, that is, you could not register on the electoral lists even if you moved to the archipelago, a state of affairs considered antidemocratic by Emmanuel Macron's government.
At the same time, however, there is the danger that the remaining indigenous population, the Kanak, will be diluted into a Francophile majority that does not want to break away from Paris.
The vote comes in a context of very high tension in the territory, marked by two nights of violence which caused two deaths and "hundreds" of injuries – including a gendarme killed by a gunshot – according to the Minister of the Interior and of Overseas France Gérald Darmanin. Emmanuel Macron decided on Wednesday 15 May to declare a state of emergency. Pro-independence leaders had already called for calm on Tuesday 14 May, but to no avail. Have major Kanak voices lost their influence? Is their basis beyond their authority? On the surface perhaps, but the reality is more complex.
An unprecedented situation
While the violence of the last few nights has reached a critical stage, with numerous arrests and clashes between youths and police, the anger in New Caledonia follows a rise in tensions with the central government. Since 1998 and the Nouméa Agreement, the electorate for provincial elections had been frozen and included “those who participated or were likely to participate in the 1998 elections and those who could demonstrate 20 years of continuous residence in New Caledonia at the date of the consultation and at the latest by 31 December 2014".
The agreement also provided for greater autonomy for New Caledonia and established a customary government, congress, and senate. It also led to three independence referendums in 2018, 2020 and 2021, all of which ended in a 'no' victory. The last referendum was boycotted by supporters of independence, who believed that the health conditions did not allow for a fair campaign.
For Isabelle Merle, research director of the CNRS and Pacific specialist, the sequence is "unprecedented". “We had not seen demonstrations of this magnitude even between 1984 and 1988” (the period of unrest against the backdrop of pro-independence demands which caused around twenty deaths), explains the researcher, who underlines the impression that the movement pro -independence has “downgraded” the Nouméa Agreement, and even that it has “come to an end”.
“They have nothing left to lose”
So who are these protesters and rioters? The peculiarity of the violence of the last few nights lies in the age of the participants. In a press briefing on the morning of Tuesday 14 May, the French High Commissioner in New Caledonia, Louis Le Franc, spoke of “extremely violent” clashes between the police and around a hundred young people who were “out of control”. He also highlighted “the use of firearms.”
Isabelle Merle paints a picture of “very young” rioters, aged between 14 and 16, “who have dropped out of school” and “inadequately supervised with insufficient educational provision”. While the researcher highlights the importance of the Régiment de Service Militaire Adapté in their integration, she also highlights their lack of prospects: “they have nothing to lose”.
Appeals for calm were ignored
In response, several local media reported that residents are organizing neighborhood militias in several areas of Nouméa. In a statement published this morning, the Front de libération national kanak et socialiste (FLNKS) called for "calming the spirits" after the violence, following the statements of important pro-independence figures.
On Monday 13 May, the president of the Union Calédonienne (UC) – FLNKS group in Congress, Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, called on the rioters to “calm down”, as reported by La 1ère, and underlined the ongoing discussions at the local level: “ It is our responsibility to address the issues affecting the country to prevent the streets from taking over.”
Jean-Pierre Djaïwé, leader of the Union Nationale pour l'Indépendance (UNI) group in Congress, regretted that the ongoing actions no longer aim “to achieve a political result, but ultimately to make things worse”. He recalled Emmanuel Macron's call for talks in Paris, seeing this as an opportunity.
However, it no longer seems that these traditional pro-independence parties have much of a hold on young people who no longer answer to anyone and who have taken the proposal to broaden the electoral base, which is still under discussion, only as a pretext for a revolt.
Late this morning (Wednesday 15 May), the political groups of New Caledonia – UC-FLNKS, UNI, Loyalists, Rassemblement and Éveil océanien – issued a joint statement calling on the population to “calm down and be reasonable” . They also expressed the belief that through "dialogue" and "resilience" it will be possible to "collectively get out of this situation".
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The article France: riots in New Caledonia after Paris wants to broaden the electoral base. The army is deployed from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/francia-rivolte-in-nuova-caledonia-dopo-che-parigi-vuole-allargare-la-base-elettorale-schierato-lesrcito/ on Wed, 15 May 2024 19:00:52 +0000.