The elected loyalists of New Caledonia announced Thursday that they would no longer sit in the Congress of the archipelago to protest against tax measures wanted by the independentists in power, which caused demonstrations and blockages of fuel depots.
The Caldonian deliberative assembly was to examine on Thursday a tariff balance tax (TTE) influencing the price of fuel, intended to replenish the coffers of the electricity system manager Enercal, close to the cessation of payments.
Very sensitive, this text – the examination of which was ultimately postponed – is contested by several employers’ organizations and by loyalists, who organized a day of action on Thursday.
In response to the adoption of taxation measures that we consider deadly for the Caldonians (…), we announce our decision to boycott the institutions of the territory until further notice, declared in a joint press release the groups Les Loyalistes and Le Rassemblement , two of the three non-independentist groups sitting in the Congress.
During a turbulent session, the elected representatives of these two groups left the hemicycle following a speech by Sonia Backs, the president of the Southern province and leader of the Loyalists.
The independentist majority is not legitimate: it is undemocratic, she said in the Chamber, denouncing several tax reforms carried out in recent months by the independentists.
We need a real recovery plan, to stop imposing additional taxes, Ms. Backs told AFP, assuring that the boycott would continue as long as we are not considered by the independentists.
Before the session, the Transporters and Construction Union had positioned several dozen trucks in front of the Congress to protest against the TTE, while the Agissons Solidaires business collective announced in a press release that they were blocking fuel depots while waiting for the definitive withdrawal of the text.
The press release from the Loyalists and the Rally, like Sonia Backs, also criticize the system of distribution of seats in Congress, which according to them favors the independentists while provincial elections are expected by the end of the year.
You allow yourself to despise us, to behave as if you were the head of a dictatorship. From today (…) we, Loyalists and Rassemblement, will no longer sit in non-democratic institutions. We will now be outside for public sessions: on the steps of Congress, Ms. Backs said again.
Pronouncing such words is a challenge to the Kanak people, responded the independent president of Congress Roch Wamytan. It’s taking the risk of rekindling a fire that we’ve been working to extinguish for forty years.
The Nouma agreement, signed in 1998, provides for a rebalancing in the distribution of seats in Congress favoring the islands and northern provinces, less populated but where the majority of indigenous Kanak populations reside.