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NOUMEA (New Caledonia) – The voters of a French island group in the Pacific have rejected the opportunity to create the most recent country in the world in a referendum highlighting deep differences on equality of wealth.
Preliminary results showed that voters in New Caledonia supported the rest of France between 57% and 43%. The referendum aimed to resolve tensions between mostly European immigrants and Kanak indigenous tribes, who were converted into a minority among a population of more than 270,000 and were boycotted by the only previous poll in 1987.
"It's a wealthy country, like Australia or most parts of metropolitan France, but the income differences are similar to those in Bangladesh," said Phillippe Gomès, French legislator and leader of the centrist Caledonian party Together, who campaigned to maintain the status quo. .
New Caledonia – slightly smaller than New Jersey and located about 900 km from Australia – plays a disproportionate role in global commodity markets. Its mining operations account for approximately 10% of the world's nickel, which is an essential part of a supply chain for automakers and other industries.
A result in favor of independence would also have given New Caledonia responsibility for issues such as defense and foreign affairs at a time when world powers are fighting for influence in the Pacific.
New Caledonia is an important military base for France. It stationed nearly 2,000 members of the armed forces and invited American troops to military exercises in recent years. During a visit to New Caledonia in May, French President Emmanuel Macron warned of China's growing hegemony in the region and called for a new strategic alliance between France, India and the United States. Australia.
The Independence Coalition, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, or FLNKS, had been campaigning to pledge to prevent natural resource controls for producers, including Swiss commodities trader Glencore PLC, to ensure greater wealth. from high prices of raw materials to basic communities. Mining and refining account for about 90% of the territory's export earnings.
In the northern part of New Caledonia, largely populated by indigenous Kanaks, more than three quarters of the votes were cast in favor of independence.
"The French system is not suited to the Kanak people and their customs," said Louise Waetheane, a 50-year-old Kanak woman.
Independence leaders Roch Wamytan on the right and Jean-Louis Koroma await the official results of the referendum at their headquarters in Nouméa, the capital of New Caledonia.
Photo:
Mathurin Derel / Associated Press
Unlike the agitation that preceded the 1987 vote, this referendum campaign was largely peaceful. However, some mining operations were the target of arson and roadblocks in the months leading up to Sunday's vote. Vandals have repeatedly installed an 11 km belt conveyor, nicknamed Serpentine, in flames at the Kouaoua mine belonging to the company Le Nickel Eramet SA.
Especially in the south of the country, many voters feared that a pro-independence vote would aggravate instability and erode living standards among the highest in the Pacific. France is injecting about 1.5 billion dollars a year into the country's economy, thus reducing the saw-tooth cycles of nickel prices.
In a televised speech in Paris, Mr Macron said the result showed "confidence in the French Republic, its future, its values".
For many people in the territory, however, the way the vote was handled has caused frustration. Only the long-time citizens of New Caledonia and their dependents had the right to vote, which provoked complaints from some citizens about their exclusion.
Separatist activists have also expressed concern that many Kanaks have been neglected because they do not have a recognized job and have therefore not been recorded in official records. The Labor Party, a small radical party, claimed that the referendum process was rigged and unfair to the Kanaks and called for a boycott.
Sunday's referendum will not end the debate on the status of the island. The Nouméa agreement of 1998, named after the capital of New Caledonia, provides for a new vote in 2020 and possibly a third in 2022. French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe will visit New Caledonia to discuss future projects with the local authorities on Monday.
While the FLNKS announced that they would band together to campaign again in two years, some victorious militants want more votes to be canceled.
"The message must be heard," said Virginie Ruffenach, general secretary of the Rassemblement-Les Républicains party. "We can not afford four more years of uncertainty."
-Mike Cherney and Nick Kostov contributed to this article.
Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at [email protected]
