Pro-independence FLNKS movement insists on New Caledonia sovereignty
Noumea: New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS movement and five other small nationalist parties have agreed that they will only discuss the territory’s accession to full sovereignty in talks planned with France.
The joint position was adopted at the weekend at the Congress of the FLNKS and then a meeting involving other pro-independence parties - their first since last December’s independence referendum.
Just over 96 per cent voted against independence from France in the third and last referendum provided under the Noumea Accord, whose outcome the pro-independence side regards as illegitimate.
The pro-independence side said it would not recognise the result and contest it in international forums.
The plebiscite was boycotted by the pro-independence camp after it had unsuccessfully asked Paris to postpone the vote because of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on mainly the indigenous Kanak population.
An FLNKS spokesperson Wassissi Konyi said bilateral talks with France should be about the transfer of the remaining powers, relating to justice, defence, policing, monetary policy, and foreign affairs.
Konyi accused France of having stolen the referendum after joining the local political right to sabotage the exit from the Noumea Accord by refusing to postpone the vote to this year.
He said he wondered how Macron interpreted the fact that 56 per cent of voters heeded the boycott call and didn’t vote in the referendum.
Last week, several anti-independence parties rejigged their alliance, restating that New Caledonians had largely spoken out against independence and that they considered the decolonisation process to be complete.
In a joint statement, they said it was time for the pro-and anti-independence sides to negotiate under the auspices of the French state a political consensus for a New Caledonia within the French republic.
Both camps in New Caledonia will contest the territory’s two seats in the Assembly, with the proindependence side yet to name its candidates.