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The French government formally announced on October 1 that it will abandon plans for a constitutional amendment on voting rights in Kanaky (New Caledonia). The amendment — if pushed through — would have significantly changed the electoral roll and increased the voting weight of French nationals in the colonised nation, including soldiers, business people and public servants deployed there.

Speaking to 3CR’s �鶹��ý Radio on October 4, journalist and Pacific Island politics specialist Nic Maclellan said the French government’s attempt to unilaterally ram through the changes, which triggered five months of protests and violence, has “come to naught”.

In its attempts to quash resistance, France has deployed 5-6000 security personnel to Kanaky, a country of only 268,000 inhabitants.

Last month, French police shot and killed two Kanaks — Johan Kaidine, 29 and Samuel Moeikia, 30 — during an early morning raid in the village of Saint Louis. The villagers, who are strong supporters of independence, had been under siege by police for weeks prior to the killing.

The entire colony has been under a nighttime curfew for the past five months.

Maclellan said the French PM’s announcement means Kanaks are “back to square one”.

“The Nouméa Accord was a 25 year transition to a series of referendums between 2018 and 2021, on whether the country should be independent, or not.

“There’s a very strong independence movement [which] has support from most of the Indigenous Kanak people. But most non-Kanaks – particularly of European heritage – want to remain within the French Republic.

“The referendums were inconclusive, particularly the third one held in the middle of the COVID pandemic and ever since then there have been talks that have floundered between the French government and �鶹��ý of the independence movement.

“The key demand [of the Kanak people] … is to create a pathway towards an independent and sovereign country.”

“What we’ve seen over the past five months is that a new generation of independence supporters – particularly Indigenous Kanaks but … [also] people from other communities [such as] the Wallisian community — are saying ‘we don’t want to stay with France, we want a pathway to a new political status’ and many want a sovereign and independent nation.

“That’s going to take some negotiation – that is still to come…

“There have been 2800 arrests over the past five months, and they were mostly young people, born this century, who only read about the clashes in the 1980s that saw the mobilisation of the Kanak nationalist movement. There are the kids and the grandkids of that generation.

“I think it is a shock to the so-called ‘loyalist’ community and certainly a shock to the French state [which] thought that over time [it] could persuade people that staying with France was the best bet.”

Regarding the recent French elections and what impact they have had on the situation, Maclellan said: “President Emmanuel Macron is incredibly unpopular in France … Since he was elected in 2017 and reelected in 2022 he has launched a series of attacks on the working class, tried – for example – to reform pension rights and launched attacks on the movement known as the Gillets Jaunes, cracked down on striking railway workers, farmers.

“[T]he mobilisation of police and security forces, with heavy-handed attacks on the Kanak movement is part of a bigger picture.”

Macron’s decision to call a snap election in France in June backfired and has caused uncertainty regarding negotiations on Kanak’s future, Maclellan said.

“No one has got a governing majority in the National Assembly and that is likely to continue until the next presidential elections which are three years away in 2027.

“This conflict is not over and independence supporters are looking for international support from Australia, from New Zealand, from trade unions, from community groups and others around the region.”