Video meetings are good.
Exchanges are better.
Especially when the subject is explosive!
This is why the political leaders of New Caledonia, this French archipelago in the South Pacific, were invited to make 23 hours of flight.
Direction Paris.
The executive has put the small dishes in the big ones.
Dinner this Wednesday evening at Matignon with Jean Castex.
And reception at the Elysee Palace, in principle, on June 1, before everyone gets back on the plane.
Between the two, a week of palaver to break the deadlock.
The idea is to set the date for the third and final referendum on self-determination.
The Nouméa agreements in 1998 provide that the final ballot will be held, at the latest, in October 2022. Here we are… The loyalists are pleading for a ballot organized before the presidential election.
The separatists, after.
In the last referendum, they lost with 46.7% of the vote.
They hope to bridge the gap but need time to overcome their divisions: the Kanaks have been failing to agree to form a government for 100 days.
One of the independence movements has also shunned the meeting of Matignon.
The Caledonian dossier could be invited into the campaign
“The Nouméa agreements are coming to an end,” explains Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu. We must therefore now get down to preparing, whatever the outcome of the referendum, the day after. The minister wrote a document specifying the consequences of the two hypotheses: independence or maintenance in the Republic. The idea is to enlighten the population and force each camp to reveal its plans. Throughout the week, senior officials will take turns with the participants to consider the consequences of a no: who would pay the teachers? What would be the currency? What would the defense relationship be? etc.
The French government displays neutrality but must take a very political decision ... By deciding on the date of the referendum, by decree in June.
"The risk is that the result of the vote will not be recognized by the losers, whoever they are, and that this will lead to a civil war", warns the loyalist president of the southern province, Sonia Backès.
The archipelago was bloodied by tragic events in the 1980s.
Read also Fall of the government, nickel plant shut down ... explosive climate in New Caledonia
While the context is tense (a nickel factory was attacked in December), the Caledonian case could be invited into the campaign. From Marine Le Pen (who scores high there) to Xavier Bertrand, via Gérard Larcher and Bruno Retailleau, part of the opposition closely follows the fate of this archipelago 19,000 km from the metropolis. In the event of independence, they would not fail to target the responsibility of Emmanuel Macron.
