In the suburbs of Paris, an agreement was signed to create the state of New Caledonia, writes Politico. “Rival political movements discussing the future of New Caledonia announced on Saturday morning an agreement to create a new state, partially dependent on France“, the article says.
It is noted that groups advocating "for" and "against" independence have reached a compromise that will grant New Caledonia autonomy.
The agreement provides for the creation of a separate citizenship for New Caledonia and the transfer of powers in the field of international relations to the new state. The document must be voted on in the French parliament and a referendum must be held on the islands themselves.
In May last year, violent protests were held in New Caledonia, organized by supporters of independence, against a planned constitutional reform in France that would change the electoral law. 14 people were killed, and the damage from the riots exceeded one billion euros. The reform, which has been postponed, would have given the right to vote in local elections to people who have lived in New Caledonia for more than a decade. The protests were organized by independence supporters, the island's indigenous Kanak people, who fear they will remain in a minority if the right to vote is given to the part of the European population that has moved there in the past 20 years.
In July last year, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke out in support of the islands' new status, and in September he received supporters and opponents of the archipelago's independence in Paris. Three referendums on the islands' independence ended in victories for loyalists.