French president to convene crisis meeting about riots in overseas territory New Caledonia

By Nur Asena Erturk

French President Emmanuel Macron will convene a crisis meeting about the riots in his country’s overseas territory in the Pacific, New Caledonia.

At least three people died in the riots that started in New Caledonia on Monday after the members of the French National Assembly adopted a constitutional reform on voting rules, according to broadcaster RFI.

Macron canceled all his schedule to lead an urgent defense and national security meeting, the Elysee Presidency told media outlets.

The reform was adopted with 351 lawmakers against 153. Left-wing lawmakers voted against it.

Local officials announced that schools would remain closed as tensions rose on the island, protesters looted shops and set vehicles on fire.

The constitutional reform is the core reason for the riots. It plans to increase the number of voters on the island by around 25,000 people, including French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for 10 years. Pro-independence leaders fear that this bill would diminish the indigenous Kanak people’s votes who are already a minority.

Kanaks represent 41.2% of the New Caledonian population according to a 2019 figure given by France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

After its adoption in the National Assembly, the reform still needs to have three-fifths of the lawmakers’ and senators’ votes, who will gather before the end of June, unless the local pro-independence groups and loyalist groups agree on a better text, as Macron previously warned.

The archipelago was annexed by France in 1853 and became the country's overseas territory in 1946. The 1980s were marked by riots for independence.

In 2006, the French parliament voted in favor of restricting French citizens’ voting rights in New Caledonia, one of Kanaks’ goals.

Independence was rejected in the first referendum in 2018, and the second in 2020. The third referendum in 2021 was boycotted by the pro-independence groups who claimed that it should have been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 90% of the voters chose to remain as part of France, a result that the pro-independence groups rejected.