Photo: RNZI/ Johnny Blades
French Senators endorsed on Tuesday, Paris time, a Constitutional amendment text regarding New Caledonia's future status.
Two-hundred and fifteen senators (mostly an alliance between right and centre-right parties) voted in favour, and 41 voted against.
The four-hour sitting was marked by a lengthy address by the French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, who came forward in support of the text, saying a status quo on New Caledonia was "not a viable option".
He said to leave things as they are would amount to "abandoning France's republican ideals, social progress and the renewed construction of peace" in the French Pacific territory.
"This (Bougival) agreement is not perfect", Lecornu conceded, "but it is the best we have collectively come up with in four years of negotiations."
French Senate vote in favour of New Caledonia Constitutional amendment Bill 24 February 2026 Photo: nat_jpg
New package, conditions
During the same address, Lecornu also outlined a new financial package for New Caledonia, in the form of a "refoundation pact" amounting some €2 billion over a five-year period.
Lecornu said the extra package contained some sizeable chunks dedicated to "strengthening (New Caledonia's) attractiveness" (€330 million) through the creation of trade free zones, tax exemptions for future investing businesses and another €500 million dedicated to supper the ailing albeit crucial nickel mining and processing industry. But not without condition.
"A credible transformation plan" was currently in the making," Lecornu explained.
"To support and accompany, yes, but to fund losses indefinitely, no."
The vote comes almost two years after unrest and riots broke out in May 2024, leaving 14 dead and over €2 billion in material damage, as well as hundreds of businesses looted and destroyed.
Since then, New Caledonia has struggled to put its economy (which suffered a reduction of its GDP by 13.5 percent) back on its feet.
France's Minister of Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu during the parliamentary extraordinary session prior to a confidence vote over the government austerity budget, at the National Assembly in Paris. Photo: MATHILDE KACZKOWSKI/AFP
Trigger issue
The main triggering factor for the 2024 riots was a legislative process before the French Parliament in a bid to modify conditions of eligibility for New Caledonian citizens at local (provincial) elections.
These elections are important because they determine the members of the three provinces (North, South and the Loyalty Islands) and, by a proportional representation trickle-down effect, the members of the territory's Parliament (the Congress), the members of New Caledonia's government and its President.
The process was eventually aborted after initially peaceful protests (organised by one of the main components of the pro-independence FLNKS [Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front] - the Union Calédonienne - and its Field Action Coordinating Cell) degenerated into riots.
During the same sitting, French Senators have also endorsed another amendment that once again postpones the date of New Caledonia's provincial elections to 20 December 2026 at the latest.
The crucial poll was already postponed three times since its initially scheduled date of May 2024.
This photograph shows a Kanak flag waving next to a burning vehicle at an independantist roadblock at La Tamoa, in the commune of Paita, France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia on 19 May, 2024. Photo: DELPHINE MAYEUR / AFP
The Senatorial vote is only the first step in a longer legislative path for the text on New Caledonia, based on the transcription of talks that were held in July 2025 and in January 2026.
The meetings, which respectively resulted in texts dubbed "Bougival" and "Elysée-Oudinot", were initially endorsed by a large majority of New Caledonia's parties represented at its local parliament (the Congress).
But since August 2025, the FLNKS has withdrawn its signature, saying the proposed agreements do not represent a credible path to the full sovereignty they demand.
Over the past few weeks, intense lobbying has taken place both in New Caledonia, but also in Paris, both on the pro-independence and the pro-France side of the political chessboard, in order to woo French MPs.
FLNKS members with 'No to Bougival' banners in Nouméa. Photo: FLNKS Indépendantistes et Nationalistes
'Don't repeat the errors of the past' - Kanak Senator
Speaking during the Tuesday sitting, New Caledonia's pro-independence (Union Calédonienne) Senator, Robert Xowie, in a direct reference to the May 2024 riots, also cautioned the French government "not to repeat the errors of the past".
"Kanaky-New Caledonia has already paid a heavy price because of the (French) government's stubbornness," he told senators.
The text tabled in the French Parliament proposes to establish a "State of New Caledonia" within the French realm, as well as a correlated New Caledonian "nationality" (tied to a pre-existing French nationality), as well as a new process of gradual transfer of powers from Paris, but at the same time rejecting any future use of referendums (an instrument regarded by Paris as "divisive").
Between 2018 and 2021, as prescribed by the 1998 Nouméa Accord, three referenda have been held regarding New Caledonia's self-determination. They resulted in three rejections of independence, even though the last poll - in December 2021 - was widely boycotted by the pro-independence movement.
New Caledonia’s first pro-independence Senator Robert Xowie speaks before the French Senate on 2 April 2024. Photo: Screenshot / Sénat.fr
"It is because of these three votes, which say 'yes' to the French Republic, that this very republic must deploy its economic and social ambition, regardless of the future outcome of political talks", pro-France Les Loyalistes leader Sonia Backès commented on social networks.
Another prominent pro-France politician, New Caledonia's MP at the National Assembly, Nicolas Metzdorf, said Tuesday's vote was "a first step".
But the text, just like in 2024, also touches on the conditions of eligibility to gain the right to vote at local elections.
Until now, under the ageing Nouméa Accord (1998), the right to vote at local elections is restricted ("frozen") to a "special roll" that includes persons born in New Caledonia or residing there before 1998, amongst other conditions.
"Unfreezing" the electoral roll would mean allowing some 12,000 more people born in New Caledonia and another 6,000 people who have been residing for at least an uninterrupted 15 years.
'Waiting for stability'
Opponents to the project, just like in 2024, argue that this opening would contribute to diluting the indigenous voice at local political elections.
The other Senator for New Caledonia, Georges Naturel (regarded as pro-France, Les Républicains party) abstained because "deep inside, I know this Constitutional reform will unfortunately not bring the stable and long term political solution New Caledonia needs".
Socialist and Green Senators also abstained, saying any future comprehensive agreement has to include everyone, including the FLNKS.
Otherwise, "there is no lasting solution to ensure peace, stability and development", Socialists leaders argued last week in an op-ed in national daily Le Monde.
They went even further saying that the text currently under scrutiny, as it stands, is "ominous" and "dangerous".
Re-elected French National Assembly MP Nicolas Metzdorf Photo: LNC
The move, already announced last week by the Socialists, was designed to give the government "the opportunity to suspend debates on the text and call for provincial elections this Spring" (tentatively at the end of May or beginning of June 2026, instead of the now re-scheduled December 2026).
According to this scenario, this would then be followed by a new round of discussions, involving newly-elected members of New Caledonia's Congress.
French Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou reacted to the Senate's vote, saying New Caledonians "have gone through tiring months and are now waiting for stability and useful decisions regarding their day-to-day lives".
Moutchou admitted the proposed process and associated calendar was "very imperfect and in parts very unsatisfactory (...) but it is indispensable. To stop this constitutional bill now would mean to close the door to the ongoing process since Bougival (talks)", she told a French Senate committee on 17 February 2026.
"We have to give this imperfect process a chance because it has the merit of providing visibility to local stakeholders," she said.
France’s newly-appointed Minister for Overseas Naïma Moutchou Photo: Assemblée Nationale
Uncertain support for future sittings
After this relatively comfortable vote, further down the legislative process, the text is to be tabled at the other House of Parliament, the National Assembly (Lower House), starting from 31 March 2026.
In the Lower House, opposition ranks are much stronger and therefore debates and process are expected to be much rockier, with the open support of large blocks of opposition, including far-left LFI (La France Insoumise, Unbowed France).
Another significant and openly declared opponent is the far-right Rassemblement National (RN).
Others include the Socialists, the Greens, the Communist Party, according to latest reports.
Later, since this is a Constitutional Amendment, both Houses of Parliament are expected to be summoned and to be endorsed validly, the Constitutional Bill needs to receive the support of three fifths of the joint sitting (called a Congress, held in the city of Versailles).
New Caledonia's capital Noumea. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
