A week will have been enough for the unit varnish to crumble and reveal the first dissensions around the “historic” agreement, signed on July 12 in Bougival (Yvelines) between the separatists and the non-independence of New Caledonia. Monday, July 21, the members of the Executive Board of the Caledonian Union (UC), the main component of the National Liberation Front, Kanak and Socialist (FLNKS), announced that they would not support the text as it is.
Back from Paris, the negotiation team, however led by the president of the party and signatory, the deputy Emmanuel Tjibaou, failed to convince them. UC delegates consider that “The fundamentals of the fight of the Kanak people do not appear there”especially the possibility of leaving one day “Colonial yoke”. The advances that this compromise would offer towards the independence of the archipelago, such as the recognition of a State and Caledonian nationality, are in their eyes only “Facade sovereignty attributes”.
“Nationality is not one, because subject to French nationality, the transfer of sovereign skills presents insurmountable locks, international recognition is not clearly specified and finally the thaw of the electoral body is synonymous with recolonization of our country”writes the secretary general of the UC, Dominique Fochi.
Gathered in a political bureau Tuesday July 22, the various “Pressure groups” Flnks have also issued a “Very reserved opinion” On the agreement. “It is obvious that the trajectory towards full sovereignty of the country lacks clear perspectives”they regret, pointing “The omnipresence of the State at each stages to be taken” To access it. The movement’s bodies must meet this weekend to decide their respective positions on the agreement, before a FLNKS agreement, scheduled for August 2, during which a common line will be adopted.
These declarations are made to be an extension of repeated criticisms since July 12 in the independence camp, against a document deemed too far from the proposal made by Manuel Valls, in early May in Deva, which was however to serve as “Negotiation floor” Aspirants to full sovereignty. “66 times the word New Caledonia, zero times the word kanaky […] And there are still some who will say that it is a good agreement ”had already deplored the movement of the independence Oceanians.
The absence of the signature of Christian Tein, president of the FLNKS, also exasperates activists. Incarcerated for a year in mainland France for his supposed role in the riots of May 2024 before being released in June, he closely followed the negotiation sequence in Bougival. But its role in the in extremis validation of the agreement by the delegation of the front remains uncertain. So far has remained very discreet. “The president of the FLNKS told us that we must communicate”simply said Emmanuel Tjibaou, during a press conference organized on July 18 by the negotiation team. A first official speech, which already looked like a retropedage: “It is indeed a draft agreement on the future of New Caledonia on which we made our signatures, not a final agreement”said Aloisio Sako, one of the five signatories of the delegation.
This turnaround of radical separatists led Manuel Valls, traveling to French Polynesia, to alert the risk of «chaos» and of“Explosion Social” that would cause the rejection of the agreement, on which the Caledonians will be called upon to express themselves in February 2026. More than a year after the riots which rocked the archipelago, the concern of a resumption of the violence grows, fueled by a series of acts of delinquency which agitated the territory in recent days.
Urban violence was noted this weekend in the popular districts of Noumea, where the insurrectional crisis of May 2024 was born. The phenomenon also reached other bush municipalities (rural areas). In the North (whose province is led by separatists), several fires of voluntary origin occurred, first in a company in Koné, then in a bus deposit, in Poya. Without it being possible to directly link with the signing of an agreement, these facts feed a climate of tensions within the population. The situation pushed the mayors of five municipalities to sign a press release to call the State to a “Immediate and coordinated reaction” faced with what they consider to be a “Rise of crime”.
“These abuses are not isolated facts: they are the symptom of a deeply fractured territory”, estimates the local antenna of the national rally. Opposed to the agreement signed in Bougival, the far -right party sees in these acts the consequences of a compromise which “Divided” et “Fails to restore order”. “The signing of an agreement, as important as it is, is not a security guarantee. The state knows it and must act accordingly ”also commented Nina Julié, elected non-independentist from the South Province (majority of Loyalist). The High Commission has announced the strengthening of the security systems of the national police and the gendarmerie in order to “To be more visible and responsive throughout the territory”.