Macron reaffirms French colonial ownership of New Caledonia No more light at tunnel's end

The arrogance of French President Emmanuel Macron has once again dashed the hopes for the decolonization of New Caledonia. Prior to his trip to the South Pacific island this week, the island’s pro-independence indigenous Kanak people was waiting the French leader to loosen his anti-independence stance.

But, the colonial spirit of Macron’s predecessors obsessed him to choke the light at the end of the tunnel.

The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (KSNLF), a nationalist and legitimate movement advocating for the rights of indigenous Kanaks, addressed a letter to the French leader before he arrived in New Caledonia on July 26.

A dialogue for pressing ahead with unchaining the island from the French colonial supremacy stood at the heart of the letter. The Kanaks have reminded the damage and humiliation caused by the colonial rule on them, portraying their independence struggle as a fruit of the brutality of French colonialism. KSNLF also reiterated its irreversible opposition to the results of three referendums spearheaded by the French authorities to shape the ultimate spirit among New Caledonians – “non à la France” or “avec la France”.

“On the one hand, by holding the 3rd consultation [referendum] on December 12, 2021, and on the other hand, by never keeping its promises, France is no longer fulfilling its obligations. At every crucial moment in our history, it prioritizes the short-term interests of the "great power" in the Pacific. For these reasons, the KSNLF, a freedom movement, protested and still protests the holding of these three consultations and their results,” reads the KSNLF letter.

“Non à la France” or “Avec la France”

On 12 December 2021, the French overseas collectivity New Caledonia held its third and final independence referendum as foreseen by the 1998 Nouméa Accord. With a voter turnout of just 43.87 percent (80,881 voters and 78,467 valid votes), the official results to the question “Do you want New Caledonia to accede to full sovereignty and become independent?” were 3.50 percent (2,747) in favor and 96.50 percent (75,720) opposed.

This differs drastically from the first two referenda in terms of both turnout and results. In 2020, with a turnout rate of 85.69 percent, the results were 46.74 percent in favor of independence and 53.26 percent opposed. Before that, the 2018 turnout rate was 81.01 percent, resulting in 43.33 percent in favor and 56.67 percent opposed.

The low turnout rate in the final balloting was due to a largescale boycott by independence supporters – primarily among the indigenous Kanak population and spearheaded by the KSNLF, calling into question the legitimacy of the referendum. Still yet, on 3 June 2021, the highest administrative court in Paris rejected the claim brought by the Kanak Customary Senate to nullify the 2021 results.

However, in April of this year, Roch Wamytan, a leading pro-independence delegate from New Caledonia, said during a meeting with the French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne that substantive talks could begin only after France has outlined the trajectory to full sovereignty of the island.

Adieu, independence …

Macron’s remarks in his recent 48-hour stay in New Caledonia, an Oceanian territory with a population of nearly 300,000 people, did not left even an inch for the Kanaks to move with their independence goals. After a traditional welcoming ceremony in the town of Touho on July 26, the French president sat for talks with the political forces of New Caledonia at the High Commission in the island’s capital of Noumea.

Macron was quite clear with the main message of his trip: France will not release its ownership of New Caledonia, in other words, “long live the 170-year-long colonialism”.

According to France 24, Macron said he was not conducting a negotiation – a process that pro-independence forces have not agreed to – but was rather seeking a "profound, sincere political exchange".

"After these three referendums, I do not underestimate the disappointed hopes of those who backed a completely different project," Macron told a gathering at a square in the capital Noumea. "The three referendums took place. New Caledonia is French because it has chosen to be French. I will also be with you all and the president of a new project I want to build with you, that of New Caledonia in the Republic."

He referred to the pro-independence camp as “separatists”, who, he believes, “choose the risk of violence today or tomorrow”. Moreover, the French leader stated that he wants a revised constitutional status for New Caledonia to be in place by the beginning of 2024.

How it started?

The French took over New Caledonia in 1853, first as a penal colony. Over the years its indigenous Kanak population was outnumbered by descendants of European settlers.

As the movement for independence grew in the 1970s and 80s, so did the violence, culminating in the Ouvéa grotto massacre in May 1988 in which 19 Kanak militants and two soldiers died.

The following decades were characterized by political struggles between the FLNKS and a settler-dominated party, the Rally for Caledonia in the Republic (Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la République; RPCR), which favoured continued ties with France. In 1988 the French government, the RPCR, and the FLNKS negotiated the Matignon Accords, which restructured political and advisory bodies and granted wide-reaching autonomy. The Nouméa Accord was formally signed in May 1998, approved by referendum in November, and passed by both houses of the French National Assembly in March 1999. Among its provisions were a change of status from overseas territory to overseas country (later, unique collectivity) and the holding of as many as three referendums on independence, to be deferred for 15–20 years.

The Nouméa Accord was said to “bring an end” to more than 140 years of French colonial rule in New Caledonia. However, those 140 years are now standing at 170 …