New Caledonia tightens security following aborted political talks ahead of riots' first anniversary

RNZ News

12-05-2025

French soldiers of the 8th Marine Infantry Regiment (8e RIMa) secure the Magenta airport in Noumea after France deployed troops to New Caledonia's ports and international airport after civil unrest erupted on 13 May 2024. (file image)
Photo:
Delphine Mayeur / AFP
Fresh, stringent security measures have been imposed in New Caledonia following
aborted political talks
last week and ahead of the first anniversary of the deadly riots that broke out on 13 May 2024, which resulted in 14 deaths and €2.2 billion in damages.
On Sunday, the French High Commission in Nouméa announced that from Monday 12 to Friday 15 May, all public marches and demonstrations will be banned in the Greater Nouméa Area.
Restrictions will also be imposed on the sale of firearms, ammunition, and takeaway alcoholic drinks.
The measures aim to "ensure public security".
In the wake of the May 2024 civil unrest, a state of emergency and a curfew had been imposed and had since been gradually lifted.
The decision also comes as "confrontations" between law enforcement agencies and violent groups took place mid-last week, especially in the township of Dumbéa - in the outskirts of Nouméa - where there were attempts to erect fresh roadblocks, High Commissioner Jacques Billant said.
The clashes, including incidents of arson, stone-throwing and vehicles being set on fire, are reported to have involved a group of about fifty individuals and occurred near Médipôle, New Caledonia's main hospital, and a shopping mall.
Clashes also occurred in other parts of New Caledonia, including outside the capital Nouméa.
It adds another reason for the measures is the "anniversary date of the beginning of the 2024 riots".
French Overseas Territories Minister Manuel Valls meets the press at the Haut-commissariat in Noumea to announce that no agreement has been reached between pro-independence and non-independence parties on the institutional future of New Caledonia at the end of 'conclave' discussions held at the Sheraton in Deva.
Photo:
AFP / Delphine Mayeur
Additionally, French authorities have also announced that in relation to the riots' first anniversary, New Caledonia's law and order setup has been significantly increased until further notice.
This included a total of 2600 officers from the Gendarmerie, police, as well as reinforcements from special elite SWAT squads and units equipped with 16 "Centaure" riot armoured vehicles.
Drones are also part of the setup.
The aim is to enforce a "zero tolerance" policy against "urban violence" through a permanent deployment "night and day", with a priority to stop any attempt to blockade roads, especially in the Greater Nouméa, to preserve freedom of movement.
One particularly sensitive focus would be placed on the township of Saint-Louis in Mont-Dore often described as a pro-independence stronghold which was a hot spot and the scene of violent and deadly clashes at the height of the 2024 riots.
"We'll be present wherever and whenever required. We are much stronger than we were in 2024," Billant told local media during a joint inspection with French gendarmes commander Nicolas Matthéos and Nouméa Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas.
Dupas said, over the past few months, the bulk of criminal acts was regarded as "delinquency", nothing that could be likened to a coordinated preparation for fresh public unrest similar to last year's.
Billant said depending on how the situation evolves in the next few days, he could also rely on additional "potential reinforcements" from mainland France.
French High Commissioner Jacques Billant, Public Prosecutor Yves Dupas and Gendarmerie commander, General Nicolas Matthéos on 7 May 2025 - PHOTO Haut-Commissariat de la République en Nouvelle-Calédonie
Photo:
Supplied / Haut-Commissariat de la République en Nouvelle-Calédonie
A New Zealand ANZAC war memorial in the small rural town of Boulouparis (West coast of the main island of Grande Terre) was found vandalised on Friday evening 9 May 2025.
The monument, inaugurated just one year ago on last year's ANZAC Day to commemorate the sacrifice of New Zealand soldiers during World Wars in the twentieth century, was set alight by yet unidentified people, police said.
Tyres were used to keep the fire burning.
An investigation into the exact circumstances of the incident is currently underway, Nouméa public prosecutor's office said, invoking the charges of wilful damage.
In the neighbouring Pacific, two of New Caledonia's main tourism source markets, Australia and New Zealand, are maintaining a
high level
or
increased caution
advisory.
The main identified cause is an "ongoing risk of civil unrest".
In its latest travel advisory, the Australian brief mentions, "Demonstrations and protests may increase in the days leading up to and on days of national or commemorative significance, including the anniversary of the start of civil unrest on 13 May.
"Avoid demonstrations and public gatherings. Demonstrations and protests may turn violent at short notice."
Pro-France political leaders at a post-conclave media conference in Nouméa. 8 May 2025
Photo:
Supplied / RRB
On Thursday, 8 May, French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls, who had managed to gather all political parties around the same table for negotiations on New Caledonia's political future, finally left the French Pacific territory and admitted no agreement could be found at this stage.
In the final stage of the talks, the "conclave" between 5 and 7 May, he had put on the table a project for New Caledonia's accession to a "sovereignty with France", a kind of independence in association with France.
This option was not opposed by pro-independence groups, including the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front).
But the pro-France movement, in support of New Caledonia remaining a part of France, said it could not approve this.
The main pillar of their argumentation remained that after three self-determination referendums held between 2018 and 2021, a majority of voters had rejected independence (even though the last referendum, in December 2021, was massively boycotted by the pro-independence camp).
The anti-independence block had repeatedly stated that they would not accept any suggestion that New Caledonia could endorse a status bringing it closer to independence.
New Caledonia's pro-France MP at the French National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf, told local media at this stage, his camp was de facto in opposition to Valls, "but not with the pro-independence camp".
Metzdorf said a number of issues could very well be settled by talking to the pro-independence camp.
This included the very sensitive issue of New Caledonia's electoral roll, and conditions of eligibility at the next provincial elections.
Both Metzdorf and Backès also mentioned, during interviews with local media, that in the midst of their "conclave" negotiations, as Valls's "sovereignty with France" project became clearer, they have had contacts as high as the French President Emmanuel Macron, asking him whether he was aware of the plan and if he endorsed it.
Another pro-France leader, Virginie Ruffenach (Le Rassemblement-Les Républicains), also confirmed she had similar exchanges, through her party Les Républicains, with French Minister of Home Affairs Bruno Retailleau, from the same right-wing party.
As Minister of Home Affairs, Retailleau would have to be involved, at later stages, in the New Caledonian case.
Since Valls's departure, reactions were still flowing at the weekend from across New Caledonia's political chessboard.
"We have to admit frankly that no agreement was struck", Valls said last week during a media conference.
"Maybe the minds were not mature yet", he added.
But he said France would now appoint a "follow up committee" to keep working on the "positive points" already identified between all parties.
During numerous press conferences and interviews, anti-independence leaders have consistently maintained that the draft compromise put to them by Minister Valls during the latest round of negotiations last week, was not acceptable.
They said this was because it contained several elements of "independence-association", including the transfer of key powers from Paris to Nouméa, a project of "dual citizenship" and possibly a seat at the United Nations.
"In proposing this solution, Minister (Valls) has biased and blocked the negotiations. So he has prevented the advent of an agreement", pro-France Les Loyalistes and Southern Province President leader Sonia Backès told public broadcaster NC la 1ère on Sunday.
"For us, an independence association was out of the question because the majority of (New) Caledonians voted three time against independence", she stressed.
Instead, the Le Rassemblement-LR and Les Loyalistes bloc was advocating a project that would provide more powers to each of the three provinces, including in terms of tax revenue collection.
The project, often described as a de facto partition, however, was not retained in the latest phases of the negotiations, because it contravened France's constitutional principle of a united and indivisible nation.
"But no agreement does not mean chaos", Backès said.
On the contrary, she believes that by not agreeing to the French Minister's deal plan, her camp has "averted disaster for new Caledonia".
"Tomorrow, there will be another minister...and another project", she said, implicitly betting on Valls's departure.
On the pro-independence front, a moderate "UNI" (National Union For Independence) said a in a statement even though negotiations did not eventuate into a comprehensive agreement, the French State's commitment and method have allowed to offer "clear and transparent terms of negotiations on New Caledonia's institutional and political future".
The main FLNKS group, mainly consisting of pro-independence Union Calédonienne (UC) party, also said even though no agreement could be found as a result of the latest round of talks, the whole project could be regarded as "advances" and "one more step...not a failure" in New Caledonia's decolonisation, as specified in the 1998 Nouméa Accord, FLNKS chief negotiator and UC President Emmanuel Tjibaou said.
Other parties involved in the talks, including Eveil Océanien and Calédonie Ensemble, have deplored the empty outcome of talks last week.
They called it a "collective failure" and stressed that above all, reaching a consensual solution was the only way forward, and that the forthcoming elections and the preceding campaign could bear the risk of further radicalisation and potential violence.
In the economic and business sector, the conclave's inconclusive outcome has brought more anxiety and uncertainty.
"What businesses need, now, is political stability, confidence. But without a political agreement that many of us were hoping for, the confidence and visibility is not there, there's no investment", New Caledonia's MEDEF-NC (Business Leaders Union) Vice-President Bertrand Courte told NC La Première.
As a result of the May 2024 riots, over six hundred businesses, mainly in Nouméa, have been destroyed, causing the loss of over ten thousand jobs.
Over the past 12 months, New Caledonia GDP (Gross Domestic Product) has shrunk by an estimated ten to fifteen percent, according to the latest figures produced by New Caledonia statistical institute ISEE.
As no agreement was found, the next course of action for New Caledonia was to hold provincial elections no later than 30 November 2025, under the existing system, which still restricts the list of persons eligible to vote at those local elections.
The makeup of the "electoral roll" for local polls was the very issue that triggered the May 2024 riots, as the French Parliament, at the time, had endorsed a Constitutional amendment to push through opening the list.
At the time, the pro-independence camp argued the changes to eligibility conditions would eventually "dilute" their votes and make indigenous Kanaks a minority in their own country.
The Constitutional bill was abandoned after the May 2024 rots.
The sensitive issue remains part of the comprehensive pact that Valls had been working on for the past four months.
The provincial elections are crucial in that they also determine, by way of proportional trickle-down effect, the makeup of New Caledonia's Congress and, in turn, of its government and President.
The provincial elections, initially scheduled to take place in May 2024, and later in December 2024, and finally no later than 30 November 2025, were already postponed twice.
Even if the provincial elections are held later this year (depending on a decision from the French government, under the current "frozen" rules), the pro-independence camp has already announced it would contest its result.
According to the pro-independence camp, the current restrictions on New Caledonia's electoral roll contradict democratic principles and have to be "unfrozen" and opened up to any citizen residing for over ten uninterrupted years.
The present electoral roll is "frozen", which means it only allows citizens who have resided in New Caledonia before November 1998 to cast their vote at local elections.
The case could be brought to the French Constitutional Council, or even higher, to a European or international level, pro-France politicians confirmed.