The independence of New Caledonia still far from being achieved

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Author: Jon Fraenkel, Victoria University of Wellington

The categorical victory of 96.5% of the anti-independence movement in the referendum of December 12, 2021 in New Caledonia was applauded by many French politicians. French President Emmanuel Macron said this ended the “binary choice” that had long preoccupied France’s distant Pacific territory.


Macron dismissed the low turnout of 43.9% as legally insignificant, although it was just over half of the 85.6% who voted in the previous referendum on the independence in October 2020. Calls by the Kanak Liberation and Socialist Pro-Independence Front (FLNKS) to delay the ballot due to the debilitating impact of COVID-19 on Kanak communities have fallen on deaf ears. The separatist parties therefore refused to participate, leaving the voting booths empty in predominantly Kanak neighborhoods.

The fiercely anti-independence parties in New Caledonia phone number library preferred to quickly conclude the three ballots provided for by the 1998 Noumea Accord. They feared that any delay would play into the hands of the separatists. Paris wanted to complete the cycle of referendums before the presidential election in April 2022, but in the process, the search for a consensual result was abandoned.

The close alignment between Paris and the loyalists of New Caledonia ended the traditional portrayal of France’s role as that of a neutral arbiter in the domestic feuds of its imperial outpost. In 1988, the government of Michel Rocard negotiated a peace agreement to put an end to the violent inter-community conflicts of the 1980s. The Matignon-Oudinot agreements promised a referendum a decade later, offered positive measures for disadvantaged Kanak communities and established provincial administrations covering the predominantly indigenous regions of the Northern Islands and the Loyalty Islands.