Abrasive reform, and new political crisis. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, the National Assembly adopted the bill on constitutional revision, aimed at unfreezing the electorate in provincial elections. The text plans to open this next ballot to all citizens residing in New Caledonia for ten years, i.e. 25,000 additional voters. A development with regard to current provisions: since the constitutional revision of 2007, resulting from the Nouméa Accord of 1998, only people registered on the electoral lists before the date of the Agreement have access to this vote.
Fiercely opposed to this development, the Kanak separatists raise the specter of “recolonization”. The riots have continued since the beginning of the week, while Emmanuel Macron has just declared a state of emergency on the archipelago. Manuel Valls, former Prime Minister (2014-2016) and ex-president of the parliamentary mission on the institutional future of this territory, considers the reform necessary, but pleads for urgently restoring order with a view to a compromise.
L’Express: With the adoption of the constitutional bill on the unfreezing of the electorate in New Caledonia, the Kanaks, a minority, fear a “recolonization” of the archipelago. Do you understand their violently expressed concerns?
Manuel Valls: It was difficult, for constitutional reasons, not to change the electorate for the provincial elections. Loyalists and separatists alike knew that we could not continue with such a blatant breach of equality. And yet, the rules are still not the same as in the rest of the Republic. The government found a compromise between the Senate, the National Assembly and all the loyalists; everyone made concessions. The separatists must return to the negotiating table.
For the rest, it is not true that the Kanaks will be “recolonized”: the reform opens voting to 25,000 people [NDLR : sur 270 000 habitants au total]. It will nevertheless be necessary to find a global agreement allowing all parties to come out on top. But we cannot negotiate under fire and bullets. The emergency today is the restoration of order.
Before becoming Prime Minister, you advised Michel Rocard and Lionel Jospin, architects of the Matignon (1988) and Nouméa (1998) agreements. What is your view on the deterioration of relations between the metropolis and New Caledonia?
As long as we were within the framework of the Matignon and Nouméa agreements, each party was constrained by its commitments. But the referendums of 2018, 2020 and 2021 marked a change of phase. That of thawing the electoral body, then of the search for a new global agreement. In my opinion, the separatists did not sufficiently anticipate this new chapter. But I remain convinced that they are ready to take the plunge, provided that trust is restored.
The executive invited all parties to Paris, and committed not to convene the Congress (which must ratify the constitutional revision) immediately following the adoption of the reform. Isn’t it clumsy to want to relaunch discussions after having twisted the arm of the separatists, via the adoption of the bill?
The Minister of the Interior was very involved in the matter, and the Elysée also followed it closely. There were some blunders, but governing is difficult… In this context, I am not going to add fuel to the fire. Everyone knew that a new chapter had to be written. The separatists are divided and they are obviously overwhelmed by radical elements. We must therefore reconnect the threads of dialogue for a global agreement which necessarily includes the unfreezing of the electorate, but also the economic, social, cultural and institutional aspects. I have confidence in the Caledonians’ capacity for dialogue, but we must help them overcome this particularly serious crisis.
Has the State broken with its impartiality in the matter, by appointing to the government, under Elisabeth Borne, Sonia Backès, leader of the non-independenceists, or even Nicolas Metzdorf, also a loyalist, rapporteur of the constitutional bill at the Palais Bourbon?
The State could hardly remain neutral in a territory where, three times, a majority of citizens have expressed their attachment to France. The President of the Republic, in 2018, himself came out of it, declaring that “France would not be the same without New Caledonia”. For the rest, there are certainly the symbols. But Sonia Backès [NDLR : ancienne secrétaire d’Etat chargée de la citoyenneté en France] is far from the caricatures that some seek to impose. She is courageous and ready to make the necessary compromises.
Concerning the rapporteur Nicolas Metzdorf, things could have been done differently. But I remain convinced that everything is just an excuse to oppose and destroy. I remind you that the National Assembly voted on the same text as the Senate. And Gérard Larcher knows New Caledonia particularly well. There is still time between now and the convening of the Versailles Congress. Let’s use it!
You are pleading for Matignon to regain control of the New Caledonian file. Is this a reserved domain of the Prime Minister?
This is my idea of the role of the head of government. As Prime Minister, I was very involved in the Caledonian issue, to save the factories which produce nickel – fundamental for the territory’s economy – and I obviously had to deal with questions of order or institutionality. I believe in the power of symbols, and I am convinced that it is important, for the Kanaks in particular, to keep the link with the Matignon agreements of 1988, and its share of symbolic places. It’s in the Chapel room [NDLR : une annexe de Matignon] that numerous agreements were discussed and prepared. And it was on the steps of Matignon that the famous handshake between Jacques Lafleur and Jean-Marie Tjibaou took place.
The essential thing today is to recreate the conditions of trust to build a common future. There is obviously a need for direct dialogue between the executive and local stakeholders. But we also need to give ourselves time, why not via a new mission of dialogue.
Despite the establishment of a curfew, riots continued last night in the Nouméa metropolitan area. The authorities have so far counted five deaths, including two police officers. Is this the specter of the quasi-civil war of forty years ago?
The violence may be reminiscent of other events, but we cannot compare eras. The New Caledonia of today has nothing to do with that of 1988. Of course, glaring inequalities remain, but considerable progress has been made. This time, it is not the independence leaders who are in the streets but thousands of determined rioters under the aegis of this Field Action Coordination Unit (CCAT). Numerous elements demonstrate that it is a mafia-like and violent organization, which loots stores, fires live ammunition at gendarmes and police officers, sets fire to businesses, and attacks institutions that are nevertheless pro-independence. We must restore order. It’s urgent. And justice must be particularly severe.
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