This time, the division is openly recorded. After the Progressive Union in Melanesia (UPM), the Socialist Kanak Liberation Party (Palika) formalized, Friday, November 15, its withdrawal from the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), which since 1984 has brought together the different independence currents in New Caledonia. These two historical components of the movement have no longer participated, for several months, in the meetings of its political bureau.
The UPM and Palika also boycotted the Koumac congress at the end of August. The FLNKS then confirmed its radicalization by appointing Christian Tein as its head, the leader of the Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT), created to organize the mobilization against the modification of the electoral body which degenerated in May.
This political choice was highly symbolic: the new president of the FLNKS has been incarcerated in mainland France, in Mulhouse, since June. He is accused by the courts of having been one of the initiators of the outbreak of violence which left 13 dead and billions in damage.
“Independence with partnership”
The UPM and Palika defend a more moderate line. United locally within an electoral coalition called the National Union for Independence (UNI), the two organizations have been defending a “independence project with partnership”.
This hybrid solution would consist of granting the independence of New Caledonia in association with France, the latter notably retaining control over the defense of a territory located in a very strategic Indo-Pacific zone. Similar examples exist in this region of the world: the Cook Islands have retained this type of link with New Zealand, as have the Marshall Islands, associated with the United States.
This option differs from the full sovereignty demanded by some of the separatists. But it remains rejected by the loyalist camp, non-independenceists who do not want to hear about anything other than the pure and simple maintenance of the archipelago within the French Republic.
The FLNKS is “unmissable”
During their recent trip to New Caledonia, the presidents of the National Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet and the Senate Gérard Larcher themselves raised the possibility of “a shared sovereignty” in the Republic. The hypothesis is not not far from the party position”, commented in a press release on Palika, who claims to want to enter into a “new cycle”.
For its part, the FLNKS, which is due to hold its next congress at the beginning of 2025, reacted to the distancing of the Palika and the UPM through the voice of Dominique Fochi, secretary general of the Caledonian Union, main component of the movement. “The FLNKS is essential, whether for today or tomorrow”he declared on the New Caledonia channel La 1ère. A way of reminding us that this gathering, even if disunited, always intends to influence future discussions.
