It is a political proposal which risks being controversial. In an interview at the Parisian published on Saturday, Emmanuel Macron said he was ready to submit the contested reform of the electoral body in New Caledonia to a national referendum, particularly if local elected officials failed to agree on the subject. “I can go to the referendum at any time” on this reform already adopted by the Senate then the Assembly, argued Emmanuel Macron.
After a vote in the same terms by both chambers, the president can in fact choose, to ratify a constitutional reform, to convene a referendum or the Congress, that is to say the meeting of deputies and senators in Versailles. It is this last option which was until then favored, while parliamentarians had to ratify this thaw of the electorate before the “end of June”, Emmanuel Macron indicated in mid-May.
A simple “reading of the Constitution”
But, in the meantime, the archipelago has experienced several days of riots which left seven dead, while the separatists reject this reform which would lead to the integration into the electorate of people living in the territory for at least 10 years. The Kanaks fear that their influence will be diluted. This situation precipitated a lightning visit by Emmanuel Macron to New Caledonia on Thursday May 23, urged by the opposition and part of his own camp to reject this Congress. A request to which the Head of State did not accede, while promising that there would be no “forceful passage” and giving one month to provide a progress update. “I assume a gesture of appeasement and openness but I will never make a decision to postpone or suspend under the pressure of violence”, reiterated the President of the Republic Macron at the Parisian.
Traveling to Berlin on Sunday, Emmanuel Macron qualified his remarks at the Parisian published the day before on the possibility of organizing a national referendum on the unfreezing of the electorate. This possibility arises from a simple “reading of the Constitution” and is “not an intention”, he assured. The head of state wants to give priority to a “global agreement” on this thaw and the future of the territory between loyalist and independentist Caledonian elected officials, to whom he has given until the end of June to reach an agreement. A challenge when the dialogue between separatists and non-separatists seems to be at a standstill.
Emmanuel Macron had already touched on the possibility of a referendum on Thursday, from Nouméa, during a closed-door exchange with New Caledonian personalities. This idea of a national referendum, which leads to dispossessing the Caledonians of the question of the electorate, did not convince Philippe Gomès, one of the leaders of the moderate loyalists. He sees it as “dangerous nonsense”. “So in 2024, we would ask the French people to decide the question of the Caledonian electorate outside of any local consensus,” said the leader of the non-independence party Calédonie Ensemble in a press release.
A “threat” from the head of state?
Former Prime Minister Manuel Valls denounces a political “mistake”. This idea can be considered political nonsense, because there would be a strong chance that the French, very far removed from Melanesian issues, would express themselves for or against Emmanuel Macron. It can also be considered as historical nonsense, because the French would be asked to decide the question of the New Caledonian electorate outside of any local consensus.
As indicated The world, Emmanuel Macron is undoubtedly making this threat in order to put pressure on local actors and force them to agree to the “global agreement” that he is calling for. “Obviously, no one wants to be taken hostage by French citizens who do not know the Caledonian subject, but this threat was also there to prove [la] determination [du président] to enforce democracy”, wrote on Facebook the former Secretary of State for Citizenship (2022-2023) Sonia Backès, president of the South province and leader of the anti-independence right.