French lawmakers rejected the government’s constitutional reform for New Caledonia on Thursday, casting doubt over the plan’s future and prompting Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to call fresh talks with local political leaders.
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The National Assembly voted 190 to 107 to throw out the bill, put forward by pro-independence MP Emmanuel Tjibaou. The move sends the text back into the parliamentary process with the Senate, leaving its future uncertain – at least in its current form.
The result had been widely expected, with left-wing parties and the far-right National Rally (RN) saying in advance they would support the rejection.
The vote came nearly two years after a previous reform attempt triggered violent unrest in the Pacific territory, leaving 14 people dead and pushing the local economy into crisis.
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A divisive deal
The bill aimed to enshrine in the constitution the main points of the Bougival accord – a 2025 agreement between the French government and New Caledonian political groups on the territory’s future status – later followed by the Elysée-Oudinot agreement in January.
It proposed creating a State of New Caledonia within the French Republic, with its own nationality and the possibility of new powers, including sovereign ones.
But the main independence movement, the FLNKS, rejects the deal.
“Bougival is the break with the decolonisation process,” Tjibaou told parliament. He warned of a risk of “partition”, saying the reform could lead to wide differences in powers between the territory’s three provinces.
Naïma Moutchou, the minister for overseas territories, urged MPs not to support the motion.
“The heart of the changes planned by the text will only come into force if the people of New Caledonia themselves accept them,” she said, warning that rejection could take the territory back “years”.
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Dispute over voting rights
Another key point of tension was the plan to delay provincial elections for a fourth time, currently due before the end of June, and to widen the franchise of who can vote.
Voting rights are currently limited to people settled in the territory before 1998 and their descendants. The reform would have extended these, under certain conditions, to people born there, their spouses and residents of at least 15 years.
Loyalist MP Nicolas Metzdorf defended the Bougival accord as the result of “major concessions” and urged his colleagues “to have the decency to debate” the text.
Independence supporters, particularly FLNKS, fear that widening the electorate would dilute the Kanak vote, while non-independence groups say it would better reflect the views of long-term residents.
Without FLNKS support, left-wing lawmakers say no deal is possible. “The government must withdraw this text,” said Mathilde Panot, parliamentary group leader of the far-left party France Unbowed.
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Next steps unclear
“Faced with this unprecedented deadlock, the government will take its responsibilities: neither paralysis nor forcing things through,” Lecornu said on X (formerly Twitter).
He added: “The signatories of the Bougival accord will be brought together next week, as planned in the event of a deadlock.”
RN leader Marine Le Pen said there was no “institutional urgency” in New Caledonia and called the bill “dangerous for national unity” because it opened the way to “independence”.
She said her party would support “the democratic requirement of unfreezing the electoral roll, if it is the path of parliamentary compromise found when the text returns from the Senate”.
In the prime minister’s circle, officials said a direct consultation of New Caledonians was still possible and that “everything is on the table to move forward”.
Loyalist senator Georges Naturel posted “what a waste of time” on Facebook, warning that the chances of reaching a stable new status for New Caledonia would now be pushed back until after France’s next presidential and legislative elections.
(with newswires)
