New Caledonia: opponents and supporters of the government demonstrate

Opponents and supporters of the New Caledonia government demonstrated Thursday in Nouméa, some threatening to create

, others calling for

, against a backdrop of tensions around a sensitive constitutional reform which is being played out in Paris on the political future of the archipelago. The first rally was held in front of the congress at the call of two non-independence groups, the Loyalists (affiliated with Renaissance) and the Rassemblement (LR), against a local government deemed

by Sonia Backès, the leader of the Loyalists and president of the southern province.

Constitutional reform

The demonstrators, 3,500 to 4,000 according to the police and 6,000 according to the organizers, gathered to send

to parliamentarians who are examining a constitutional reform aimed at expanding the electorate in the provincial elections of the archipelago, until then limited to the natives and long-time residents.

“I say it in Paris today, to the parliamentarians who are trembling: we are the ones who will make a mess if they try to step on us!”

, insisted Sonia Backès, former Secretary of State in charge of Citizenship (2022-2023). The text, examined Tuesday in the Senate, must be the subject of a solemn vote on April 2, before making its way to the National Assembly in May.

Later in the morning, it was the separatists, supporters of the New Caledonian government, who marched in Nouméa. They denounced this desire to open the electorate and supported the policy of Louis Mapou, the first separatist elected to the presidency of the collegial government of New Caledonia. The latter called for

.

,” he told the demonstrators. On Tuesday, its congress withdrew a

project , contested by several employers' organizations, causing the lifting of blockades of fuel depots in the archipelago in progress since March 21.