The declaration was solemn. This Saturday, June 8, Louis Mapou, the president of the government of New Caledonia, called for writing a “new page” in the history of the South Pacific archipelago, which has been going through its most serious crisis since mid-May. the 1980s. During a speech broadcast on local television channels, the leader paid tribute to the victims of the violence, and announced an eighth death in three and a half weeks of unrest, following the vote for an electoral reform decried by the separatists.
“This situation is no longer tenable because the population is the main victim,” declared Louis Mapou, noting that “the path of appeasement and de-escalation” agreed with President Emmanuel Macron, during his trip to Nouméa on 23 May, “has not yet resulted in a recovery of the situation”.
On the political level, the pro-independence president pointed to “too measured management” in the face of the riots by pro-independence parties and, on the other hand, a “permanent escalation” of loyalist leaders, who “feed the existing climate of violence”. “The constitutional law on the electorate, decided unilaterally by the national authorities, reopened a wound which took time to heal and heal,” said the president. This text aimed at expanding the electorate in provincial elections is accused by the separatists of “marginalizing” the indigenous Kanak population.
Getting out of “the trappings of the colonization system”
Louis Mapou called to hear this “new generation of young Caledonians and in particular Kanak”, who “burst into the debate”, and demanded a “renewal of political leaders”. He urged the Head of State and Parliament to agree “that this constitutional law goes against the grain of history” of New Caledonia, making the organization of provincial elections “unlikely” between now and the end of 2024.
According to the head of the New Caledonian executive, President Macron must “explain his intentions more clearly” to enable “a global agreement to be found on the institutional future” of the territory. To enable reconstruction, in addition to state aid, the New Caledonian president called on diplomats from “friendly countries”, such as Australia, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Japan and Indonesia.
He finally called for “rebuilding a new link” to remove New Caledonia “from the trappings of the colonization system that we still perceive in the way these events are recounted and experienced in New Caledonia or in France” .