The elected representatives of the Caledonian Congress adopted on Monday a wish calling for the withdrawal of the constitutional reform relating to the sensitive question of the electorate, the examination of which begins in the National Assembly. The resolution, carried by the two independence groups, was adopted Monday by 28 votes for, 24 against, while demonstrations and blockades took place throughout the archipelago.
Maintain “a climate of trust”
“Only the immediate cessation of the constitutional revision process will make it possible to return to a climate of trust and allow calm discussions to begin on the institutional future of the country,” said Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, president of the UC-FLNKS group ( independence) in Congress. “This resolution was adopted by a majority which does not represent the majority of Caledonians. It is worthless, the decisions of this assembly are no longer valid,” commented non-independence Sonia Backès, president of the province. South.
Two non-independence groups, Les Loyalists and Le Rassemblement, decided on March 21 to no longer participate in the assembly meetings, because they consider that the Oceanian majority, an alliance of separatists and the Wallisian community party L’Eveil Océanien, is “illegitimate”. The situation has become particularly tense in the archipelago since the Minister of the Interior and Overseas Territories, Gérald Darmanin, initiated constitutional reform aimed at modifying the electorate in provincial elections, crucial for the territory, in the absence of local consensus.
Strong mobilization
The bill, adopted in the Senate on April 2, must be examined this Monday in a public session at the National Assembly. The text plans to open these elections to people with at least ten years of residence. Until now, the right to vote in these elections was reserved for natives, as well as residents who arrived before 1998 and their descendants. The arrival of the text in the National Assembly provoked an unprecedented independence mobilization since the period of violence in the 1980s.
On Monday, filter dams, blockages of mining axes and sites, as well as demonstrations took place in the archipelago. Gunshots were heard in the independence stronghold of Saint-Louis, in the suburbs of Nouméa, where traffic had to be cut off. The popular district of Montravel in Nouméa was also closed to traffic due to the presence of numerous demonstrators and lights on the road. At least fifteen people were arrested.