Emmanuel Macron proposes to invite all the New Caledonian parties to Paris for a meeting aimed at relaunching the dialogue on the institutional future of the archipelago, his entourage announced on Sunday May 12, on the eve of the examination by the National Assembly of a sensitive constitutional reform.
Mired in a deep economic crisis and affected by the difficulties of its nickel sector, New Caledonia has been experiencing tensions for several days, with daily mobilization and several arrests.
“Reaffirming his desire to favor dialogue as part of the path to the future that he had called for building in Nouméa last July, the President of the Republic requested that all representatives be invited to Paris for a meeting with the government,” explains the entourage of the Head of State.
No immediate convocation of Congress
Emmanuel Macron also promised that he would not convene “immediately”, in the event of adoption of the text, the Congress of Parliament, after Tuesday’s vote of the National Assembly on the constitutional bill aimed at expanding the body electoral of the provincial elections of New Caledonia, a reform highly contested by the separatists of the archipelago.
Already adopted by the Senate, this constitutional reform is examined Monday and Tuesday by the Assembly, where the government hopes for identical adoption. The text would then have to be adopted by all the parliamentarians meeting in Congress in Versailles, by three-fifths of the votes cast. The date of the possible Congress has not been announced by the executive, even if the text currently under discussion includes a date of entry into force of July 1, 2024, which implies a prior vote by Parliament.
The government project aims to integrate residents who have lived for at least ten years into the electorate. The objective is to remedy a situation of freezing of this electoral body, which has the consequence of depriving the provincials of the right to vote of nearly one in five voters.
In July 2023 during a trip to Nouméa, then in September 2023 during a meeting at the Elysée, Emmanuel Macron had already urged the stakeholders to reach a global institutional agreement, without success since then.
