New Caledonia’s FLNKS 44th Congress leaders make final statement on Sunday 26 January 2025. Photo: RRB
A congress held by New Caledonia's pro-independence front, the FLNKS, ended on Sunday with declarations to lead the French Pacific territory to talks with Paris regarding full sovereignty, but on certain conditions.
The FLNKS's 44th Congress was held on 25 and 26 January in the pro-independence stronghold of Saint Louis, located near the capital Nouméa.
It gathered the main pro-independence party Union Calédonienne (UC) and several other affiliated parties and unions, under the FLNKS banner, but without two of its significant founding components, regarded as "moderates": the UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie) and the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party).
UPM and PALIKA ceased to take part in FLNKS's structures since its previous Congress, held in late August.
This was mostly because their respective leaders said they disapproved of recent moves spearheaded by UC, including a radical approach that led to the May 2024 riots and insurrection, leaving 14 people dead and some €2.2 billion in damages.
Will for unity despite divisions
UPM and PALIKA said although they shared the ultimate goal of sovereignty with UC and FLNKS, they disapproved of a now UC-dominated FLNKS, which during the August 2024 Congress, appointed a Coordination Cell Field Actions group (CCAT) leader, Christian Téin, as the new FLNKS president.
Both UPM and PALIKA also held their own meetings at the weekend in separate locations near Nouméa (in Dumbéa for UPM and Houaïlou for PALIKA).
"We still see that FLNKS's operating mode continues in a way which we don't approve of. Our vision remains to go towards discussion instead of confrontation," UPM leader Victor Tutugoro said.
Speaking on Sunday during an interview on New Caledonia's public broadcaster NC la 1ère, Tutugoro said his party and PALIKA still regarded themselves as promoters of a "moderate" approach.
"And then, there are those who are more vindictive", he said, adding his vision remained in favour of a "shared sovereignty" between New Caledonia and France.
"We think just as France is responsible for colonisation, it should also take responsibility for decolonisation".
Tutugoro also confirmed his party's intentions to take part in talks with Paris in the coming days.
"But in order to achieve this, we need appeasement and calm to enter into proper negotiations", he said.
FLNKS resolutions
At the FLNKS Congress at the weekend, a roadmap to New Caledonia's independence was presented.
It was very similar to the plan unveiled late November 2024 by Union Calédonienne's new President, Emmanuel Tjibaou.
This included having a "Kanaky Agreement" signed by 24 September 2025, followed by a "transition period" from 2025 to 2030 in order for New Caledonia to gain full sovereignty.
At the weekend, the Congress added that the transition process should be supervised by the United Nations, in a fashion similar to Timor Leste in the early 2000s.
Negotiations between all political parties and the French State are expected to begin in the next few days, early February 2025.
But before that, in what it described as a "preparatory phase" to the discussions per se, FLNKS said it intended to send a letter to Paris, asking for clarification on how New Caledonia's parties' talks were intended to take place.
The clarification request would also include calls to liberate Christian Téin, appointed President of the FLNKS (Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front) in absentia late August 2024.
Téin is currently imprisoned in Mulhouse (North-east of France) pending his trial for his alleged criminal-related involvement in the organisation of the demonstrations that degenerated into the 13 May 13 riots.
"Abusive arrests, deaths, a biased judicial system. Our militants no longer trust the French State. But we are determined, we have chosen to go back to the path of dialogue", UC Secretary General Dominique Fochi said in his speech on Sunday to close the FLNKS congress.
He said the FLNKS's intention was to restore dialogue, "but not without conditions".
New Caledonia’s pro-independence FLNKS 44th Congress gathering in Saint Louis, near the capital Nouméa, on 25 January 2025. Photo: RRB
A handful of demands
FLNKS also resolved that talks with France should take place in New Caledonia, not in Paris, "under the United Nations' supervision".
It also stresses that at the initial stage, it only intended to speak to the French State, on a one-to-one basis, and that its political bureau should decide who is part of the whole pro-independence delegation.
In a letter presented as emanating from Téin, as an opening address to the FLNKS congress, the jailed leader also mentions a tighter schedule than Tjibaou's, saying New Caledonia's accession to full sovereignty should take place "before (French) Presidential elections (in 2027)".
Téin said in the same letter that for these upcoming talks with Paris, FLNKS should aim at presenting a united front with a team made up of the movement's "diversity".
On the first day of the gathering, on Saturday, while New Caledonia's two pro-independence MPs Emmanuel Tjibaou (National Assembly) and Robert Xowie (Senate) were in attendance, pro-independence veteran figure and former President of New Caledonia's Congress (Parliament), Roch Wamytan, said there was now a need to "close this colonisation chapter. We have to close this door. There will still be suffering, there will be more dead, but we will go on".
Preparation for talks
The talks (between pro-independence, anti-independence parties and the French State) are intended so that all parties should reach a comprehensive and inclusive political agreement no later than 31 March 2025.
Those talks, on the invitation of the French Prime Minister François Bayrou, aim at bringing all political tendencies of New Caledonia and agree on an inclusive political solution for New Caledonia's long-term future.
Over the past few days, France's newly-appointed Minister for Overseas, Manuel Valls, is believed to have already held several separate visio-conferences with a wide range of parties in New Caledonia.
A group of pro-France (loyalists) politicians is planning to travel to Paris as early as this week, first to further negotiate more French financial assistance for New Caledonia's post-riot recovery process, but also to start political exchanges with Valls and his team.
The following week, UC, UPM and PALIKA Presidents are also scheduled to travel to Paris, local media reported at the weekend.
However, one of the remaining questions is whether the pro-independence camp will take part under a FLNKS format or, alternatively (and contrary to FLNKS's suggestion), as a variety of pro-independence parties, as per their respective caucus representation at New Caledonia's local Congress.
