Photo: GABRIEL BOUYS/AFP
The signing of a new agreement on New Caledonia's political and financial future has triggered a fresh wave of reactions from across the French territory's political chessboard.
The "Elysée-Oudinot" agreement was signed on Monday 19 January, in the presence of French President Emmanuel Macron as well as most of New Caledonia's politicians.
But the pro-independence FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, had chosen not to travel to Paris.
The new deal, signed by parties represented at New Caledonia's Congress (its local parliament), including members of the moderate pro-independence PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), who have split from FLNKS, all signed the agreement.
PALIKA and UPM are formed into a Parliamentary caucus called "UNI" (Union Nationale pour l'Indépendance).
The Elysée-Oudinot text was described as being a "complement" bearing "clarifications" to a previous agreement project, signed in July 2025 in the small city of Bougival (west of Paris).
The FLNKS, even though it initially signed the Bougival text, rejected it in bloc a few days after returning to New Caledonia.
As French President Macron called all politicians back to the table to refine the July 2025 talks, FLNKS announced it would not travel to Paris, saying the project which would serve as the basis for further talks did not meet their short-term goals of full sovereignty.
They said the Bougival text and all related documents were in substance "lures" of independence and that they regarded the French state as being responsible for a "rupture of dialogue".
As the Bougival initial text, its Elysée-Oudinot complement maintains the notion of creating a "state of New Caledonia", its correlated "nationality" and introduces a new set of commitments from France, including a package to re-launch the local economy, severely damaged as a result of the riots that broke out in May 2024.
The new text also mentions granting more powers to each of New Caledonia's three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty Islands group), including in terms of revenue collection by way of taxes.
Photo: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/POOL/AFP
This, the FLNKS protested, could erode the powers of New Caledonian provinces and reinforce economic and social inequalities between them.
Reacting to the signing in Paris in their absence, the FLNKS, in a media release on Wednesday, condemned and rejected the new text "unequivocally".
FLNKS President Christian Téin, in the release, said the new agreement endorses a "passage en force" (forceful passage) and is "incompatible" with the way the FLNKS envisages Kanaky's "decolonisation path", including in the way it is defined under the United Nations decolonisation process.
It also criticises a document signed "without the indigenous people" of New Caledonia.
The pro-independence party also expressed its disapproval of what it calls a "pseudo-accord".
"We will use every political tool available to us to re-alert, again and again the public", FLNKS politburo member Gilbert Tyuienon told public broadcaster Nouvelle-Calédonie La Première at the weekend.
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou had reiterated, even after the signing in Paris, that the door remained open to FLNKS.
In reaction to the signing, other parties have also expressed their respective points of view.
"Why didn't they come [to Paris] to defend their positions, since they were invited?" Southern Province President (pro-France) Sonia Backès wrote on social networks.
"Does UNI not represent the Kanak people too?" she added.
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou said this new set of agreements reflected a "shared will to look at the future together".
"Now the territory can walk on its two legs".
Some of the pro-France parties, who want New Caledonia to remain a part of France, have however acknowledged that even though the new documents were signed, the road ahead remained rocky in terms of its implementation in the French Parliament, through a local referendum and related constitutional amendments.
"We've done the easiest, the hardest part remains" - Metzdorf
New Caledonia's MP at the French National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf said a huge challenge still remains ahead.
"We've done the easiest, the hardest part remains... This is to obtain the [French] Parliament's support, both Houses, to enact the accords in the French Constitution."
Following a very tight schedule in the coming weeks, the texts will be submitted to the vote of both Parliament Houses, first separately, then in a joint chamber format (the Congress, for constitutional amendment purposes).
Then the text is also to be submitted to New Caledonia's population approval through a referendum-like "consultation".
In a way of foretaste of what promises to be heated debates in coming weeks, with a backdrop of strong divisions in the French Parliament, Moutchou and far-left MP Bastien Lachaud (La France Insoumise, LFI) waged a war of words on Tuesday in the National Assembly.
Responding to Lachaud's accusations which echoed those from FLNKS, Moutchou denounced the "passage en force" claim and the absence of "consensus".
"FLNKS was never excluded from anything. It was invited, it was approached, it was awaited, just like the other ones. It chose not to turn up," Moutchou said.
"The politics of empty chair was never conducive to a compromise," she said as Assembly Speaker Yaël Braun-Pivet had to call the LFI caucus back to order.
Strong financial component
Some of the financial aspects of the deals include a five-year "reconstruction" plan for New Caledonia, for a total of €2.2 billion, presented to New Caledonia's politicians by French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu.
This chapter also comes with revisiting previous French loans for over €1 billion, which New Caledonia found almost impossible to repay (with an indebtedness rate of 360 percent).
The loans, under the agreement's financial chapter, would be renegotiated, re-scheduled and possibly converted into non-refundable grants.
Meanwhile a two-year repayment holiday (2026-2027) would be applied, while a far-reaching reform programme is expected to be pursued.
"What people really expected was (economic) prospects. This is the main part of this accord, the economic refoundation," commented Vaimu'a Muliava, from Wallis-based Eveil Océanien party after the Paris talks.
The new financial arrangements would also provide a much-needed lifebuoy to critically threatened mechanisms in New Caledonia, such as its retirement scheme or the power supply company.
More injections for the nickel industry
Another €200 million is also earmarked to bail out several nickel mining companies facing critical hardships.
This includes assistance aimed at supporting business and employment for French historical Société le Nickel (SLN), Prony Resources and NMC (Nickel Mining Company, which has ties to Korea's POSCO).
The French government has also pledged to follow-up on a request to New Caledonia's nickel mining and refining declared a "strategic" sector by the European Union.
"The agreement's economic chapter was as necessary as the political one," said New Caledonia's President Alcide Ponga after the signing.
Another cash injection was directed to this year's budget for New Caledonia, which benefits from a direct cash injection of €58 million.
