This was published 5 years ago
Macron treads a fine line on independence for New Caledonia
By Charlotte Antoine
Noumea: French President Emmanuel Macron has acknowledged the "pain of colonisation" during a visit to New Caledonia that was rich with symbolism and emotion as the South Pacific archipelago prepares to vote on whether to break free of French rule.
Wrapping up a three-day trip, Macron said, "France would not be the same without New Caledonia" - but he was careful not to openly campaign for the territory to stay French when it holds an independence referendum in November.
French President Emmanuel Macron is surrounded by independence Kanak flags on Ouvea Island, off New Caledonia, on Saturday, May 5.Credit: AP
The territory east of Australia has about 270,000 inhabitants including the native Kanaks, who represent about 40 per cent of the population. New Caledonia already enjoys a broad degree of autonomy, but is an important part of France's overseas holdings that stretch from the Caribbean to the Indian Ocean and the north-east coast of Canada.
Macron paid homage Saturday to 19 Kanak independence activists killed 30 years ago after taking police hostage in a cave on the New Caledonian island of Ouvea. Four soldiers were also killed.
It was the first time a French president took part in the annual ceremony marking the May 5, 1988, event.
Children of Ouvea sang the French Marseillaise and the Caledonian anthem at the site of the police station occupied by the independence activists. Macron then visited the burial site of the 19 killed and spoke with victims' families.
"I am glad and proud that the president came," said Micheline Ouanema of the Takedji tribe, whose husband was among those killed.
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, meets residents, one with the independence Kanak flag in her hair.Credit: AP
Macron also met with a group that protested his participation in the ceremony, the Gossanah collective, but decided not to lay flowers at the site to show respect for their anger.
Later, Macron handed over two documents from 1853 that declared New Caledonia as a French possession. At the same site in 1998, then-Prime Minister Lionel Jospin signed the accords that paved the way for this year's referendum.
"We are no longer in a time of possession, but a time of choice, and collective responsibility," Macron said.
In a closely watched speech addressing the referendum, Macron said, "We will not forget the pain of colonisation. We must recognise the place of each person, to look directly at each other."
Macron insisted that he would not take sides in the referendum. Some in the loyalist camp criticised Macron's trip as favouring pro-independence partisans.
Past electoral results and recent polls suggest voters will choose to remain in France in the November 4 referendum.
Macron warned against letting the referendum fuel local tensions.
"The day after (the vote), each will have to work together," he said.
While he didn't urge voters to stay French, he insisted that developing deeper ties with the South Pacific - where France also has ties thanks to French Polynesia - is an important part of his global strategy. Macron arrived in New Caledonia after a trip to Australia, where he sought to boost military and economic cooperation.
"France is a great power thanks to all its territories," he said, calling his country "the last European country in the Pacific".
France's African and Asian colonies mostly broke free in the 1950s and 1960s. The vote in New Caledonia is the first time a self-determination referendum is being held on a French territory since Djibouti, in the Horn of Africa, voted for independence in 1977.
The Indian Ocean island of Mayotte, which chose to remain French in the 1970s, voted in 2009 for closer ties with the mainland.
While Macron was talking up the role of France in the Pacific, thousands took to the streets in Paris to protest against his proposed domestic reforms and to mark his first year in office.
Police fired tear gas on troublemakers on the margins of the largely festive protest on Saturday, and eight people were arrested. Authorities deployed 2000 police to the event after violence and ransacking scarred a May Day protest in the French capital earlier this week, shocking many.
Protesters rally in Paris on Saturday, demanding President Macron back down from proposed reforms.Credit: AP
"Stop Macron!" read placards at the rally in front of Paris' famed Opera Garnier. Demonstrators then marched through tourist-filled neighbourhoods toward the Bastille plaza in eastern Paris.
Organisers of the march, the far-left party Defiant France, planned the event around the one-year anniversary of Macron's May 7, 2017 election. He was inaugurated a week later, and quickly launched broad changes to France's labour rules to increase the nation's global competitiveness.
Protesters are angry at reforms led by Macron, a centrist former investment banker, such as cutting some worker protections and increasing police powers.
"This regime is a regime that's an authoritarian regime. We are in a soft dictatorship and we have concerns about guarantees of individual freedoms and the guarantee of fundamental rights," said protester Roselyne Gonle-Luillier, a judge.
Macron won the presidency on a wave of disillusionment at France's traditional parties, beating far-right Marine Le Pen in a runoff. He has raised France's international profile - but at home many voters are disgruntled and fear that he his dismantling the French way of life.
AP