After a week of deadly riots which left 6 dead in New Caledonia, the French state is trying to restore order by mobilizing more than 2,000 police officers and gendarmes. If the first objective is the end of the violence, the political response is also being prepared behind the scenes. Whether on the right, on the left or in the majority, voices are urging the executive to delay, but not all agree on the future of the reform of the electoral body, which has set the archipelago ablaze.
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The most radical are the four presidents of the overseas regions: Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyana and Réunion. For them, the reform must be withdrawn immediately. A prerequisite, according to them, to the resumption of a dialogue. A postponement of the Congress, rather than an abandonment, to make way for a dialogue mission with a view to a possible agreement between separatists/loyalists, this is what the left defends. But also, executives of the presidential majority, such as the President of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Pivet.
On the far right, the National Rally, whose deputies nevertheless voted for the reform, is now pleading to give long-term perspectives to the separatists. Marine Le Pen spoke at the end of the week of a possible fourth referendum in 40 years.
Éric Ciotti rejects any procrastination
The only exception, the boss of the Republicans, Éric Ciotti, rejects any logic of procrastination. According to him, the six-month deadline provided for in the text for a global agreement is sufficient. Within the government for the moment, radio silence, and many questions. Officially, the Congress must be held at the end of June in Versailles, unless there is an improbable agreement.
But the crisis is now open and the toll is already heavy: is the 3/5 majority in Parliament still acquired? Who to appoint as head of a dialogue mission? And for what deadlines? The answers should be known in the coming days.
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♦ The Kanaks benefit from the support of the other Overseas Territories. A demonstration was even organized in Guyana. A way for indigenous inhabitants to show their support, but also to make their demands known. There were around fifty of them and Ludovic Pierre was one of them.
It was truly a show of solidarity. It was without any organization or institution.
Ludovic Pierre, Guyanese protester in solidarity with Kanaky