The Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) will make known Tuesday its position on the agreement signed in mid-July with the State and the non-independence, reported, on Sunday, August 10, at the France-Presse agency, of the leaders of the movement.
The outcome is hardly in doubt: all the structures (parties and unions) which make up the FLNKS have already pronounced themselves against the Bougival agreement, signed on July 12 at the end of ten days of intense negotiations between independence and non-independence under the aegis of the Minister of Overseas, Manuel Valls.
The text, negotiated in the Paris region, provides in particular for the creation of a “New Caledonia State” and of a Caledonian nationality, as well as the possibility of transferring sovereign skills (money, justice, police). But although described as“Historical” By the loyalists, he immediately aroused the protest of independence activists, because he does not provide for a new referendum on independence.
“I don’t resign myself”reacted Manuel Valls on Facebook, announcing that he 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 insisted. “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. »»
“Clear and unambiguous” rejection of the agreement
At the opening of an extraordinary congress on Saturday at the design, in the suburbs of Nouméa, the president of the FLNKS, Christian Tein, called, in a declaration read by an activist, to a rejection “Clear and unambiguous” of the agreement. His arrangements “Are only the illustration of contempt for administering power with regard to our fight for recognition as colonized people”he also stressed.
Under judicial supervision, Christian Tein is prohibited from staying in the French Pacific archipelago and attended the debates by videoconferencing. Released on June 13 after a year of pre-trial detention at Mulhouse-Lutterbach prison (Haut-Rhin), he remains indicted for his alleged role in the violence that left 14 dead and billions of euros in damage in 2024 in New Caledonia. The political leader has always denied having called for violence.
Inviting activists to « clarifier [leur] strategy “Christian Tein considered that the members of the FLNKS should remain “Open to dialogue”who must be done “Only on the terms of accession to full sovereignty”, “In bilateral format” with the state, and this “Until September 24, 2025”as decided by the previous movement of the movement last 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 election”he concluded.
