The main goal was to resume the political process and allow everyone to "project themselves into the future" after the May 2024 riots. Photo: NC La 1ère
French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls has announced he will travel to New Caledonia on 22 February to pursue talks on the French territory's political future.
This comes following preliminary talks held last week in Paris in "bilateral" mode with a wide range of political stakeholders.
The talks, which included pro-independence and pro-France parties, were said to have "allowed to restore a climate of trust between France and New Caledonia's politicians".
Those meetings contributed to "a better understanding" of "everyone's expectations" and "clarify everyone's respective projects", Valls said.
Between 4 and 9 February, Valls said he had met "at least twice" with delegations from all six parties and movements, represented at New Caledonia's Congress (parliament).
The main goal was to resume the political process and allow everyone to "project themselves into the future" after the May 2024 riots.
The riots caused 14 dead, hundreds of injured, arson and looting of hundreds of businesses and an estimated damage of some €2.2 billion.
"We have touched on all topics, extensively and without any taboo, including the events related to the riots that broke out in New Caledonia in May 2024."
Valls said in this post-riot situation, "everyone bears their own responsibilities, but the French State may also have a part of responsibility for what happened a few months ago".
New Caledonia’s key economic leaders Mimsy Daly and David Guyenne with French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls. 8 February. Photo: MEDEF NC
Economic forum
At the weekend, as part of the week-long talks, Valls and French Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin hosted a three-hour session dedicated to New Caledonia's "devastated" economy.
High on the agenda of the conference were crucial subjects, such as France's assistance package, the need to reform and reduce costs in New Caledonia (including in the public service workforce, often referred to as plethoric), as well as key sectors such as the health, tourism sectors and the nickel mining and processing industry, which has been facing an unprecedented crisis for the past two years.
There was also a significant chapter dedicated to the duration of special unemployment benefits for those who have lost their jobs due to the riots' destruction.
Another sensitive point raised was the long and difficult process for businesses (especially very small, small and medium) damaged and destroyed for the same reasons to get insurance companies to pay compensation.
Most insurance companies represented in New Caledonia have, since the May 2024 riots, cancelled the "riot risk" from their insurance coverage.
This has so far made it impossible for riot-damaged businesses to renew their insurance cover under the same terms as before.
French assistance to post-riot recovery in New Caledonia includes a one billion Euros loan ceiling and a special fund of some 192 million Euros dedicated to the reconstruction of public buildings, mainly schools.
New Caledonia's students are returning to school next week as part of the new academic year.
French Public Accounts Minister Amélie de Montchalin speaks from Paris to New Caledonia audience via vision conference on Saturday 8 February 2025 during Economic Forum. Photo: NC la 1ère
Economy and politics closely intertwined
Valls stressed once again that "there cannot be an economic recovery without a political compromise, just like there cannot be any lasting political solution without economic recovery".
"(France) needs to be there so that the economic slump (caused by the riots) does not turn into a social disaster which, in turn, would exacerbate political fractures".
"The government of France will be on your side. No matter what happens. We are absolutely taking charge of our responsibilities."
The "economic Forum" was also the first time delegations from all political tendencies, even though they did not talk to each other directly, were at least sitting in the same room.
"Thank you all for being here, this is a beautiful picture of New Caledonia. Maybe the economy can do more than politics", Valls told the Economic Forum on Saturday 8 February.
Next step: 'trilateral' meetings
The next step, in New Caledonia, is for Valls to attempt holding "trilateral" meetings (involving all parties, pro and anti-independence and France) around the same table, which was not the case in Paris last week.
The format of those Nouméa talks, he however cautioned, "remains to be determined".
Valls said he could stay in New Caledonia for as long as one week because, he said, "I want to take time", including to not only meet politicians, but also economic and civil society stakeholders.
The 62-year-old French minister, who is also a former Prime Minister, as a political advisor to the then French Socialist Prime Minister Michel Rocard, was involved in the signing of the Matignon Accord, signed in 1988 between France, pro-independence and pro-France parties, which effectively put an end to half a decade of quasi civil war in the French Pacific archipelago.
He also stressed that any future discussion would be based on the "foundation and basis" of the Matignon and Nouméa Accords which, he said, was "the only possible way".
The Nouméa Accord, signed in 1998 between the same parties, paved the way for a gradual transfer of powers from France to New Caledonia as well as a status of wider autonomy, often described in the legal jargon as "sui generis".
Until now, under the Nouméa Accord, the key powers remaining to be transferred by France were foreign affairs (shared with New Caledonia), currency, law and order, defence and justice.
New Caledonia's authorities have not requested the implementation of the transfer for another three portfolios: higher education, research, audiovisual communication and the administration of communes.
But the 1998 deal also included an exit protocol, depending on the results of three referendums on self-determination.
Those referendums were held in 2018, 2020 and 2021 and they all yielded a majority of voters against independence.
However, New Caledonia's pro-independence movement largely boycotted the third poll and has since contested its validity.
Pro-France and pro-independence camps hold radically different views on how New Caledonia should evolve in its post-Nouméa Accord (1998) future status.
The options mentioned so far by local parties range from a quick independence (a five-year process to begin in September 2025 following the anticipated signature of a "Kanaky Accord") to some sort of yet undefined "shared sovereignty" that could imply an "independence-association", or a status of "associated state" for New Caledonia.
Pro-France parties, however, have previously stated they were determined to push for New Caledonia to remain part of France and, in corollary, that New Caledonia's three provinces (North, South and Loyalty Islands) should be granted more separate powers, a formula sometimes described as "internal federalism" but criticised by pro-independence parties as a form of "apartheid".
Another complicating factor is that on both sides also, pro-independence and pro-France camps are also divided between their respective moderate and radical components.
Last week, during question time in parliament Valls expressed concern at the current polarised situation: "People talk about racism, civil war. A common and shared project can only be built through dialogue.
"The (previously signed, respectively in 1988 and 1998) Matignon and Nouméa Accords, both bearing the prospect of a decolonisation process, are the foundation of our discussions. I would even say they are part of my DNA," the minister said.
Referring to any future outcome of the current talks, he said they will have to be "inventive, ambitious, bold in order to build a compromise and do away with any radical position, all radical positions, in order to offer a common project for New Caledonia, for its youth, for concord and for peace".
