Delphine Mayeur / AFP
The Minister of Outres-Mers Manuel Valls has announced to go to New Caledonia next week.
New Caledonia – Ultimate attempted persuasion. While the National Liberation Front Kanak Socialist (FLNKS), which met this weekend in congress this weekend, is due to formalize its rejection of the agreement signed in July on Tuesday with the State and non-independence on the future of the archipelago, the Minister of Overseas announced this Sunday, August 10 that he would go there next week.
“I don’t resign myself”writes Manuel Valls on social networks in the aftermath of the extraordinary congress.
If the position of the independence movement on the agreement signed on July 12 in Bougival (Yvelines) will not be communicated until Tuesday, August 12, the statements of its president Christian Tein calling for a rejection “Clear and unambiguous” text and decisions already taken by the components of the FLNKS do not leave any doubt. “Everything suggests that it would have been decided to rejection of the agreement” On a new status of the territory, regrets the minister who will go to New Caledonia during “The week of August 18”.
“The Bougival agreement has not fallen from the sky. It is a historical compromise, fruit of working month (…) with all delegations including that of the FLNKS. Everyone has affixed their signature ”he insists.
« Gather » et « listen »
The FLNKS delegation had welcomed the signature of the text, but recalled two days later in a press release that “All the elements transcribed in the draft agreement to (aie) nt brought to the approval of (their) structures with a view to collectively debating it on the follow -ups to give it”. However, the text had immediately aroused an outcry on the side of independence activists, in particular on the question of the right to self -determination and recognition of the Kanak people.
As soon as the first official criticisms emanating from the independence camp in mid-July, Manuel Valls proposed the creation of a “Editorial committee”in order to finalize the constitutional texts arising from the agreement.
The latter “Must be enlightened, in -depth, specified, completed”. “This is the subject of the editorial committee that I proposed. It is in this context that the spirit of the agreement may be clarified, in particular on the identity, the place and the founding role of the Kanak people in the history and the future of the territory ”pleads the overseas minister, ensuring that he will meet all the stakeholders in Nouméa. “To collect. To listen. To bring together all those who refuse sterile confrontation. And who want to move forward, together, on the only way possible: that of consensus. »»
The Bougival agreement continues to be defended locally by the entire non-independence camp, the Oceanian Awakening, Party « ni-ni » (Neither independentist, nor loyalist), as well as by the Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) and the Progressive Union in Melanesia (UPM), two moderate independence movements which left the FLNKS in August 2024.
« Continuation of dialogue »
But amending the Bougival agreement may not be the choice chosen by the FLNKS. During the opening of the movement of the movement on Saturday August 9, its president, Christian Tein advocated the “Continuation of dialogue”more “Only on the terms of accession to full sovereignty”, “In bilateral format” with the state and this “Until September 24”as decided by the previous movement of the movement, held in January. “We must capitalize on our assets and value them as well as possible in order to access full sovereignty at the latest before the 2027 presidential elections”had concluded Christian Tein.
“To refuse the agreement is to choose rotting and confrontation. And it will be failure for everyone. Without compromise, no lasting reconstruction, no real economic recovery ”estimates for his part Manuel Valls.
New Caledonia, where the violence of 2024 killed 14 dead and several billion damage, crosses an unprecedented crisis, which has resulted in particular in a fall of 10 to 15 % of its GDP last year and more than 10,000 jobs destroyed, according to figures from the overseas emission institute, the central bank of French communities in the Pacific.