(Paris) Emmanuel Macron calls on Tuesday for “the firm and definitive lifting of all dams” in New Caledonia and “the condemnation of violence without pretense”, in a letter sent to the inhabitants of the French archipelago in the South Pacific.
“The situation in which New Caledonia has been reduced by a few remains unacceptable and those who encouraged it will have to answer for their actions,” wrote the French head of state who visited the site on May 23 .
Since May 13, New Caledonia has been plagued by violent unrest caused by the adoption by the National Assembly of a constitutional reform bill allowing a thaw of the electoral body, which, according to its opponents, would further marginalize the indigenous Kanak people.
The riots, unprecedented since the 1980s on the “Caillou”, left nine dead, including two gendarmes.
Recalling that he decided not to convene the two houses of Parliament meeting in Congress to adopt the constitutional electoral reform project, the president calls “for the constitution of a new Caledonian social contract”.
“This dialogue should naturally focus on the nature of the links that will be forged with France, links that unite without hindering, links of mutual solidarity,” he wrote.
“It always takes longer to build than to destroy. But patience is always the condition of hope,” he concludes.
A sign of a very slow return to normal after five weeks of unrest, schools reopened on Monday, as did Nouméa international airport, while the entry into force of the nighttime curfew was postponed from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
But, in its streets, the capital of the territory, Noumea, still bears the marks of the violence: burnt buildings, including schools, roadblocks by the independence supporters, counter-roadblocks by the non-independence supporters…
