The French president landed today in the capital Nouméa and hinted that the state of emergency could be lifted after the deployment of 3,000 police. The tensions between loyalists and separatists are intertwined with the crisis of the nickel industry in which indigenous Kanaks are most of the workforce.

Nouméa (AsiaNews) – A 3,000-strong French police deployment will remain in New Caledonia “as long as necessary,” said President Emmanuel Macron who landed this morning in Nouméa, the capital, in an attempt to restore order and calm after recent clashes between separatists and "loyalists”.

"This is the top priority," said the French president, who, after paying tribute to the six people who died in the violence, met with local political and business leaders.

The government could lift the state of emergency, Macron hinted, but the political future of New Caledonia, which has been under French control since 1853, will be a thorny issue for the French leader.

The outbreak of violence by the most radical fringes came after both houses of France’s National Assembly approved a new law giving voting rights to French residents who have lived in the territory for more than 10 years.

Such a move that could reduce the political weight of the indigenous population.

Kanaks are about 40 per cent of the territory’s 270,000 inhabitants, while the "Europeans" represent a quarter of the population. The latter group is divided between the descendants of early settlers (Caldoches), and those who arrived recently (derogatorily referred to as the "metro" or "zoreill"),

Eleven per cent of the population say they are mixed-race, belonging to more than one group, according to France's National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

Since the late 1990s, more than 40,000 French people have moved to New Caledonia and now represent 20 per cent of the local population, but they are excluded from local elections because the electoral rolls have been frozen at the 1998 status quo, under the provisions of the Nouméa agreement.

If the constitutional reform were to be definitively approved, 25,000 residents would be given the right to vote in the territory’s provincial assemblies and territorial congress, which picks the government.

The divisions are also geographical. The northern province and the Loyalty Islands province are predominantly Kanak, while the southern province, where the capital Nouméa is located, is inhabited mostly by people of European descent.

New Caledonia was used as a penal colony in the 19th century, taking in more than 20,000 people (mostly political prisoners), subjected to forced labour. Between 1897 and 1903, the indigenous population was displaced under a policy of Cantonnement, i.e. moving the Kanaks to reserves and smaller islands, to make room for settlers.

New Caledonia became an Overseas Territory in 1946. In 1984, a coalition of pro-independence parties formed the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) and declared independence, starting a civil conflict that ended four years later.

Since then, the FLNKS has been engaged in talks with Paris, but is opposed to opening up the electoral rolls.

Some believe that the Coordination Cell for Action on the Ground (CCAT[*]), which was created late last year, was behind the violent protests.

Louis Le Franc, the French high commissioner for New Caledonia, has described the group as "an organisation of thugs who engage in clear acts of violence, with the intent to kill.”

The National Council of Kanaky Chiefs, which represents the main Kanak tribal chiefs, has lent its support to CCAT, judging that it “is not a terrorist or mafia group as certain political authorities would have people believe."

In a recent statement, the CCAT said that attacks “committed on businesses, companies, public buildings and facilities were not necessary," but that they were the expressions of society’s “invisibles”.

Loyalist political groups opposed to independence are on the right of the political spectrum, but are divided into several factions.

Young Kanaks, who were at the forefront of the protests, are still "extremely marginalised" economically and socially, said Mathias Chauchat, an advisor to the FLNKS and a professor at the University of New Caledonia.

Forty-six per cent of Kanaks have a junior high school certificate as their highest educational qualification, compared to 11 per cent for "Europeans," he explained, adding that indigenous people feel discouraged because they see the French taking the best jobs.

The economic difficulties in recent years have also played a role in the protests. Unlike other Pacific island countries, New Caledonia is not poor, but its economy is almost completely dependent on nickel mining, of which it is the world's third-largest producer.

Nickel is used in electric car batteries, but especially in stainless steel.  “Nickel is a strategic resource, necessary for building, supplying, and deploying modern militaries and powering the economies that sustain them. This was true in the 19th century, and with the rise of green energy technology, it’s even more true today," said Cullen Hendrix, of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

But a drop in demand, lower prices in recent years (in 2023 the price of nickel fell by 45 per cent), and growing competition from Indonesia (China’s main supplier) have created a crisis that has disproportionately affected the Kanak population.

The three main companies involved in the sector employ, directly and indirectly, some 13,000 people.

The French government was negotiating a rescue package for mining companies after several international partners pulled out, but talks have stalled due to tensions between pro-independence and loyalist camps.

---

[*] Cellule de coordination des actions de terrain.

• oceania
• new caledonia
• france
• china
• nickel
• kanaks
• caldoches
• electoral rolls
• flnks
• riots
• violence
• emmanuel macron