For the past few days, New Caledonia, a French possession in the Pacific, has been in the grip of an insurrection fomented by a handful of Kanak independence fighters who are challenging a constitutional reform on the status of the island, which is currently being examined by the national assembly. In defending the pro-independence movement, the French Left finds itself defending arguments about the rights of a people to defend its land and its identity—which in any other context would make them classed as ‘extreme Right.’
The origins of the current crisis can be found a little over twenty-five years ago, in 1998, in the agreement signed at the time between the socialist French government and the Kanak independence movement—known as the Nouméa Accord.
Providing for several transfers of powers to give New Caledonia autonomy, the agreement involved the organisation of three referendums. These were held in 2018, 2020, and 2021 to ask the Kanaks—i.e., the indigenous population of the island of New Caledonia—whether they wished to become independent or remain under the tutelage of France.
The agreement provided for excluding part of the French population settled on the island from the electorate: voting in the referendum was to be reserved for residents who had settled in New Caledonia on or before the date of the previous agreements on the island’s status, the Matignon agreements, signed in 1988. All French nationals settled after that date—sometimes referred to by the Creole name ‘Zoreilles’—were therefore barred from voting. ‘Caldoches’, the term used to designate Europeans who had settled on the island since it was colonised, were able to vote because they had been in Caledonia longer.
Three times, the people of New Caledonia have shown their attachment to France, much to the despair of the most radical fringe of the pro-independence movement, who went so far as to boycott the ballot in the last referendum in order to be able to contest its legitimacy later. Three times, the supporters of France won, with a more than respectable score.
At the end of the three referendums, the French government came up with the constitutional reform that is now causing a stir in the archipelago. The reform provides for the unfreezing of the electorate as defined in 1998—meaning that any resident who has lived in New Caledonia for more than ten years would be entitled to vote. If the reform is adopted by the Congress, 25,000 people would join the electorate, which would change the political balance. The independentists believe that this reform would further reduce their weight and influence, hence their anger and the demonstrations that have set the island ablaze.
Since the unrest broke out, the death toll has risen steadily. Five people, including two gendarmes, have died in the riots. The French government announced that it will be sending additional troops to restore calm and secure key points, such as ports and airports. The island is already home to a large contingent of French Navy personnel. The use of the TikTok application, used by rioters to communicate, has been suspended on the island.
Since the beginning of the crisis, the French Left has taken up the cause of the Kanak pro-independence movement. France Insoumise MPs have taken to the floor of the national assembly to make vibrant pleas for respect for the indigenous populations, their culture, and their identity, which should be preserved at all costs—with consummate contempt for white people, some of whom have nevertheless been living there for over a century.
From the mouths of the Left, one begins to hear very unusual arguments—the same ones they stigmatise when uttered by their political opponents on the subject of France. In New Caledonia, ‘cultural mixing’ and ‘diversity’ are anathema, while celebrated when speaking of France. In mainland France, no such thing as the ‘people of France’ exists—but in the Antipodes, the Kanak people are entitled to all honours. The ‘native French’ (Français de souche) is a mere myth, but the Kanak can be proud of his illustrious Melanesian fathers who have been on the island since time immemorial.
Christiane Taubira, a radical left-wing politician made famous by her 2001 law establishing the slave trade and slavery as “crimes against humanity”, published a lyrical tribute to the land of Kanak people on Thursday, May 16th—with the same lyricism used by Philippe de Villiers to pay tribute to the Vendéens, as the conservative essayist Eugénie Bastié humorously pointed out.
But there is something more serious: the same Left which, in France, is campaigning with all its might for foreigners, including non-Europeans, to have the right to vote in local elections, is strongly opposed to the unfreezing of the Caledonian electorate proposed by the constitutional reform—an unfreezing provided for under very reasonable conditions, as it requires a minimum of ten years’ residence—far more than the Left is demanding from all the immigrants it wants to see voting in the French suburbs.
The issue of freezing the electorate is a sensitive and painful one. There is an unfortunate precedent in French history, that of the Pieds-noirs, as the Europeans living in French Algeria were once known. At the time of the war of independence and the conclusion of the Evian agreements, which in 1962 put an end to the French presence in Algeria, the Pieds-noirs were not allowed to take part in any of the referendums held to decide the fate of the land they had inhabited, developed, and loved passionately for more than one hundred and thirty years.
Beyond France’s borders, the Kanak independence fighters are supported by a fairly heterogeneous conglomerate. The UN sees New Caledonia as a remnant of the “colonisation” of yesteryear, which it insists should be brought to an end. Azerbaijan—certainly with the backing of Russia and Turkey—thinks it’s a good idea to stir up anti-French hatred on the other side of the world. In January 2024 the Azerbaijani parliament called for “measures” to be taken to recognise the independence of Corsica, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia. An initiative group was recently set up in Baku with this in mind. In Nouméa, the capital of the island of Caledonia, pro-independence activists proudly display clothing that combines the Kanak and Azeri flags. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has publicly acknowledged the harmful influence of the Azeri government on New Caledonian activists.
For the moment, the situation is deadlocked and there is no end in sight. In a departure from her party’s traditional positions, Marine Le Pen, the long-time representative of the Rassemblement National, against all the odds spoke out in the press on Thursday, May 16th in favour of holding a new referendum, but in forty years’ time—a way of double-crossing Emmanuel Macron, who has no immediate alternative plan. The president’s proposed videoconference with the local representatives had to be cancelled when locals refused to “engage in dialogue.” Le Pen’s proposal would make the New Caledonian question part of a Scottish-style scenario. Taking a gamble that is not without risks, she believes that, between now and forty years from now, there is little reason for support for France to disappear from an island that, threatened by Chinese appetites, fundamentally has nothing to gain from cutting the cord.
