Buffet appeals for dialogue as he ends New Caledonia visit

French Minister for Overseas François-Noël Buffet has ended his four-day visit to New Caledonia with an appeal for return to dialogue, five months after deadly riots broke out in the French Pacific archipelago.

"The time has come to return to dialogue, discussion, exchange, after the terrible (events) New Caledonia has been through," he said on the last day of his visit.

The riots, triggered in response to an attempt from the French government to endorse a constitutional bill to modify voter eligibility, have caused the death of 13 people, hundreds of injured, over 800 businesses looted and burnt, close to 20,000 job losses and a total material damage estimated at €2.2 billion.

Buffet's visit focused on the economic cost of the crisis and French assistance to keep the economic and social fabric afloat, most of the rest of his schedule was dedicated to hold talks with a wide spectrum of political players.

This was aimed at resuming talks that were deemed as necessary to restore long-term peace, and to produce an inclusive document that is supposed to pave the way for New Caledonia's political future.

There had been attempts to initiate those talks locally, over the past three years, but efforts to bring all representatives of both pro-independence and pro-French parties around the same table had failed.

This was mainly due to differences and rifts within both camps.

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This time around, after the dissolution of the French National Assembly (Lower House), a snap general election, the dumping of the controversial constitutional amendment and the appointment of Buffet as the new Minister for Overseas, the overall feeling from all of New Caledonia's political parties was that there was a general will to resume talks.

The talks would not only focus on the electoral roll (with the necessity to "unfreeze" the restrictions on voters for local elections), but to cover a wide range of political issues, including which status the French Pacific territory could adopt in the medium term.

Under the current arrangements, only people born or residing in New Caledonia before 1998 are allowed to cast their vote for provincial elections (which, in turn, has a bearing on the proportional makeup of the local "collegial" government).

After his appointment in September, France's new Prime Minister Michel Barnier said not only the "Constitutional way" was now regarded as abandoned.

However, he said in order to give more time to discussions, the provincial elections (which were supposed to be held not later than mid-December 2024) would now be postponed until as far as November 2025.

During this round of talks, Buffet spoke to separate delegations from pro-independence and from the loyalist (pro-France) side.

Most parties stressed the need to resume those wide-ranging talks, saying earlier sessions, before the riots, could serve as a basis for the new rounds.

One of the pro-independence Union Calédonienne-FLNKS leaders in the local Congress, Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro, said the talks with the minister, in an "open-minded" atmosphere, seemed to confirm that there was indeed a decolonisation process underway in New Caledonia.

"So on that basis, this is what we're aiming for, what we'll put on the table: full independence with or without partnership with France," he told reporters.

"All the options will be on the table."

Independence - association or in 'partnership'?

Another more moderate pro-independence group, at the Congress, Union National pour l'Indépendance (UNI) said they had been advocating for the past years for an "independence in partnership with France", spokesman Jean-Pierre Djaïwé told local media.

However, on the loyalists' side, there were reservations, especially demands that before talks could resume, law and order must be fully restored.

Moreover, there are those who strongly object to the notion of independence, after a sequence of three referendums between 2018 and 2021, all resulting in a majority of voters expressing the wish for New Caledonia to remain part of France.

The third of those three referendums, although regarded as legal, was contested by the pro-independence camp, after they had called for a boycott.

In order to pursue talks that could be initiated in the next few weeks, a French High-level delegation is scheduled to arrive soon in New Caledonia.

The mediation and "concertation" delegation is to be headed by the Presidents of both French Houses of Parliament, Gérard Larcher (Senate) and Yaël Braun-Pivet (National Assembly).

French President Macron is also understood to want to receive New Caledonia's political leaders before the end of this year.

French PM Barnier also said recently he was contemplating travelling to New Caledonia "when the time is right".

During the earlier days of his visit to New Caledonia, Buffet made a series of announcements regarding French assistance in the wake of the insurrectional crisis.

After French emergency funds to the tune of €400 million Euros were injected to keep New Caledonia's economy afloat, the French minister said on Thursday more assistance would be mobilised to pursue France's commitment.

This included take care of the reconstruction of all public buildings, including schools, for an unspecified amount.

This would also include France providing a guarantee (to a ceiling of €500 million Euros) that would vouch for any fresh loan request.

But several parties across the local political spectrum have since openly expressed this was far from enough in the face of the massive damage sustained in New Caledonia due to the current crisis.

Moderate pro-French Calédonie Ensemble leader Philippe Gomès said "this is not serious".

"It's basically contracting another loan to refund advances monies from the French State last year."

The Wallisian-based Eveil Océanien party said "this is not reassuring at all".

A similar position was also expressed by pro-France Les Loyalistes leader and President of the Southern Province, Sonia Backès.

She still hoped that a debrief meeting between Buffet, PM Barnier and French President Macron, next week in Paris, could lead to "further, more ambitious announcements and initiate a more pragmatic, less naive political approach".

This could include announcements regarding the prolongation of exceptional unemployment benefits for the thousands of now-employed workers.

Another radical Loyalist and French National Assembly MP, Nicolas Metzdorf, went further and spoke about "humiliation" and "disappointment".

"The positive side of things is that as (Buffet) spends more time in New Caledonia, he's increasingly aware of the extent of damage here," he said.

Metzdorf said he hoped this would make the minister "an ally" of New Caledonia and someone who would defend the French Pacific archipelago in crucial Budget 2025 debates.

This year's appropriation bill is heavily marked by a ballooning French deficit and the need to drastically reduce expenses in every ministry, and increase the taxpayers' burden through revenue-generating measures.