(Nouméa) Emmanuel Macron calls on Tuesday, in a letter to Caledonians, for the lifting of the blockades on the Caillou, where the withdrawal of a controversial electoral reform has not made it possible to restore order, which local elected officials deplore, judging this very “naive” presidential letter.
In this letter sent after five weeks of unrest, the President of the Republic demands “the firm and definitive lifting of all blockades” on the French Pacific archipelago and “the condemnation of violence without pretense.”
“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 head of state, who visited the site on May 23 for an express visit.
At that time, the archipelago was swept by a wave of violence –– notably riots since the night of May 13 – causing the death of nine people, including two gendarmes, as well as considerable material damage.
Since then, Emmanuel Macron suspended last Wednesday the bill which ignited the powder and crystallized the anger of the independence camp: it provided for a constitutional reform modifying the electoral criteria for the Caledonian provincial elections, which would have had consequences, according to its opponents, to marginalize the weight of the indigenous Kanak people.
The suspension was decided after the electoral setback suffered by the presidential camp in the European elections and the political crisis born from the surprise dissolution of the National Assembly, which de facto prevented the president from convening a Congress to ratify the reform.
Not enough to calm the spirits: the roadblocks set up for more than a month by the separatists remain in place despite the 3,500 forces of law and order deployed as reinforcements, as do the barricades of the opposing militiamen.
From now on, the president is banking on 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,” he wrote in his letter.
“It always takes longer to build than to destroy. But patience is always the condition of hope,” adds Emmanuel Macron.
“We would have preferred the restoration of order to a very naive letter,” responded during the day the loyalists, a camp nevertheless favorable to reform and close to the presidential majority, whose leader is the former Secretary of State. State Sonia Backès.
His group denounced, in a press release, “benevolent evidence uncorrelated with the current situation in New Caledonia”, a “worrying disconnection”, while a very fragile return to normal is just beginning on the archipelago.
Schools and the international airport reopened on Monday, while a nighttime curfew remains in effect from 8 p.m.
Outgoing MP Nicolas Metzdorf, also in the non-independence camp, explains that he replied to the President of the Republic that his letter “was unsuitable given the situation”. “I recalled that the need today was to find a strong state with a strong president who would restore order and security throughout the territory,” he continued.
On the archipelago, which will also have to organize early legislative elections in a delicate context on June 30 and July 7, those who until recently supported Emmanuel Macron are now turning away.
The outgoing Renaissance Nicolas Metzdorf, for example, will run in the 1st Caledonian constituency without a label other than local, because, he told AFP, “only New Caledonia counts”.
During the 2022 legislative elections, the entire right concluded an agreement to present common candidates under the banner of the presidential party. This time, there will be no candidate labeled Renaissance. Not even the outgoing deputy Philippe Dunoyer, who turned to Horizons, the party of Édouard Philippe, whose involvement in the Caledonian issue when he was prime minister resonates locally.
The independence camp has not yet reacted to the presidential letter. But he has promised, in recent days, to remain mobilized until the reform project is definitively buried.
