Speaking in parliament, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who took part in a two-hour meeting with the most sensible ministers at the Elysee Palace, said the aim of the state of emergency would be to “restore order as soon as possible”.
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On Wednesday afternoon, a decree on the modalities of implementation of the state of emergency will be submitted to the Council of Ministers.
French officials patrol a roundabout in Noumea, New Caledonia, Dec. 12, 2021. French President Emmanuel Macron is imposing a state of emergency on the Pacific territory of New Caledonia to stem spiraling violence, the presidency announced on Wednesday. Photo/Clotilde Richalet, archive)
In a statement, Macron insisted on the need to resume political debate and called on the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior and Territories to invite delegations from New Caledonia to Paris.
“Any violence is unbearable and will be subject to a relentless reaction to ensure the restoration of order,” he said.
There have been decades of tension in the archipelago between indigenous Kanaks seeking independence and descendants of colonizers seeking independence in France.
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French Interior and Overseas Minister Gerald Darmanin said 100 gendarmes had been violently evacuated overnight, following “an attack on his police station with axes and live ammunition. “
“Calm will surely have to return,” Darmanin said in an interview with French broadcaster RTL.
On Tuesday, the French Interior Ministry sent police reinforcements to New Caledonia, which has long served as a penal colony and now a base for the French army.
Some 1,000 gendarmes and 700 police officers have been deployed and a dozen professionals from a unit specializing in police and insurrection have also been mobilized, French High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, the territory’s most sensible French official, told a news conference in New Caledonia.
The territory’s political parties have called for “calm and reason” from supporters of independence and those who need the island to remain French.
“We will have to continue to live together,” the rival parties said in a joint speech on Wednesday. “Only with discussion and resilience will we get out of this situation. “
Two other people were killed and three seriously injured during the overnight riots, Le Franc said in an interview with France Info channel. A fourth person, a member of the gendarmerie, was also seriously injured near the southern town of Plum. He was evacuated in critical condition to the medical unit of the Pacific Marine Infantry Regiment, French broadcaster BFM reported.
Le Franc warned that if calm is not restored, there will be “many deaths” in the region of the capital, Nouméa, where demonstrations over voting rights turned violent on Tuesday.
The local government has extended the curfew until Thursday morning.
Clashes between police and protesters continued in and around Nouméa despite a curfew and a ban on gatherings. Schools are closed “until further notice” and the large airport, La Tontoura, “remains closed to advertising flights,” Le Franc said. .
“The scenario is serious, it’s very serious,” Le Franc said. “We have entered a harmful spiral, a death spiral. “
He said some citizens of the capital have set up “self-defense groups” in their homes and businesses.
The unrest began Monday with a protest against France’s efforts to expand the electoral roll, which would benefit New Caledonia’s pro-French politicians and further marginalize the Kanak people, who once suffered strict segregation policies and widespread discrimination.
On Wednesday morning, France’s National Assembly followed a constitutional revision reforming the territory’s by 351 votes to 153.
Pro-independence representatives appealed to their supporters for calm and condemned the vote in the National Assembly, the most influential chamber of the French parliament.
Macron also called for calm after the vote and condemned the “undignified violence” in a letter to New Caledonia’s representatives and political parties.
He called on all local politicians to participate in the debate and submit suggestions for making adjustments to the bill. Macron said he would convene Congress, a joint consultation of lawmakers from both houses of the French parliament, until the end of June to amend the charter. and enact it in the absence of meaningful discussion with local officials.
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The bill would allow citizens who have resided in New Caledonia for 10 years to vote in provincial elections. People of European descent in New Caledonia distinguish between the descendants of the settlers and the descendants of the numerous prisoners forcibly sent to the territory. The vast archipelago of about 270,000 people east of Australia is 10 time zones ahead of Paris.
New Caledonia became French in 1853 under Emperor Napoleon III, Napoleon’s nephew and heir. It became a territory after World War II and in 1957 French citizenship was granted to all Kanaks.
In 1988, a peace agreement was reached between rival factions. A decade later, France promised to grant New Caledonia political strength and broad autonomy and to hold up to three successive referendums.
All three referendums were held between 2018 and 2021 and a majority of the electorate chose to remain in France rather than become independent. Kanak separatists rejected the effects of the last referendum in 2021, which they boycotted because it was held at its peak. of the COVID-19 pandemic.