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France has vowed to push ahead with plans for electoral reform in its Pacific overseas territory of New Caledonia that sparked deadly rioting there this week.
Three people have died in violence that has raged in the south Pacific territory despite the deployment of extra police and imposition of a curfew.
The French government wants to allow all citizens who have lived in New Caledonia for more than a decade to vote in local elections, a change opposed by much of the indigenous Kanak population.
Provincial elections on the island due this month were postponed to allow the French parliament to work on a constitutional amendment to alter the voting laws, and the lower house passed a draft bill to that end on Tuesday.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday called a crisis meeting of his security council to address the rioting. But French interior minister Gérald Darmanin on Tuesday insisted the government would not abandon or postpone the reform that touched off the protests. “One cannot delay democracy,” Darmanin told RTL radio.
The reforms in effect revisit the Nouméa Accord of 1998 that brought political stability to New Caledonia for a quarter of a century in part by restricting the voting franchise to Kanaks and citizens who lived in the territory before the agreement.
New Caledonia’s economy has also been hit by a crisis in its all-important nickel mining industry. The territory, which lies 1,500km east of Australia and has a population of 270,000, is one of the world’s biggest nickel producers and gives France influence over a large maritime zone in the south Pacific.
Tensions between residents loyal to France and Kanaks who support independence for New Caledonia have worsened since a referendum on the issue in 2021. Those who took part overwhelmingly rejected independence, but many Kanaks boycotted the vote saying the Covid-19 pandemic made campaigning impossible.
In a letter this week, Macron invited New Caledonian leaders from the pro- and anti-independence camps for negotiations in Paris. He has offered to abandon the proposed voting change if the two sides agree a new status to define citizenship on the island.
“Without such an accord, which I continue to call for and would be beneficial for all New Caledonians, then the Congress will meet in late June,” he wrote, referring to the last step in the process to change the French constitution.
Nouméa’s schools, businesses and airport were closed on Wednesday and Darmanin said hundreds of people had been injured and “dozens of homes and businesses burned down” in the violence.
Denise Fisher, a former Australian consul-general in New Caledonia who is now a visiting fellow at Australian National University, said the attempt to force an agreement by holding the vote in the French parliament had “backfired”.
Fisher said Macron’s call for calm this week risked inflaming the situation by including a commitment to push through the voter laws. “Frankly that is asking for trouble. I don’t think the violence is over,” she said.
New Zealand’s foreign minister Winston Peters cancelled a visit to New Caledonia this week and Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese warned Australian citizens in Nouméa that they should be vigilant.
Macron visited New Caledonia in 2023. Fisher said the territory was central to France’s claims to be a significant player in the Indo-Pacific. “Macron sees it as part of France’s mission as a global player. He can’t afford to be seen as weak,” she said.
