Macron to visit New Caledonia to stem unrest as tourists are evacuated
The French president was due to travel to the Pacific island of New Caledonia last night, just over a week after riots erupted in the French overseas territory leaving six dead and hundreds injured.
The unrest over an electoral overhaul has seen shops and businesses looted and burned, cars torched and barricades set up. A state of emergency and curfew remain in place, with the army sending in reinforcements.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, the French government spokesperson Prisca Thevenot said Emmanuel Macron would travel to “set up a mission”,
nd without saying what it could entail. Some have called for veteran politicians to be mediators, but Thevenot did not confirm plans.
“Our priority is the return to calm and order,” she said, adding that the situation was improving but more needed to be done. Yesterday Australia and New Zealand sent planes to evacuate some of the estimated 3,000 tourists thought to be in New Caledonia, where the main airport is closed to commercial flights.
The unrest began last week as politicians in Paris voted on a bill to give French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years the right to vote in provincial elections. Some local leaders fear this change would dilute the share of the vote held by Kanaks, the Indigenous group that makes up about 41% of the population and the major force in the pro-independence movement.
France’s highest administrative court, the Conseil d’État, was yesterday examining complaints by two rights’ groups and three citizens in New Caledonia over France’s unprecedented decision to shut down the social media platform TikTok on the Pacific island last Wednesday.
Under the state of emergency, people on the island have been unable to access the Chinese-owned social media platform since 15 May. The government believed the app was being used by those opposed to French rule to communicate and organise violent protests.
Because New Caledonia has only one telecoms operator, the TikTok shutdown was put in place quickly after a special crisis meeting in Paris.
TikTok called the decision “regrettable” and said it had been taken without “any request from the local authorities or the French government to take down content”.
France’s human rights league and NGO La Quadrature du Net, which campaigns on data and privacy issues, have brought a fast-track case to overturn the ban, warning it is the first time a European democracy has shut down a social media platform.
La Quadrature said the French government had “struck an unprecedented and particularly serious blow to freedom of expression online”.
France’s former citizens’ rights ombudsman, Jacques Toubon, told French television there had to be a balance of civil liberties and security: “It’s akin to at the start of the 20th century stopping newspapers being printed.”
‘Our priority is the return to calm and order [on the island]’
Prisca Thevenot French spokesperson