“We cannot thus despise democracy when, three times, the Caledonians decide that Caledonia remains French,” launched the president of the Gathering group at the Congress of New Caledonia, Thursday on Franceinfo.
Published the 08/05/2025 14:31 Reading time: 2min
“The real chaos is independence”, Has hammered Thursday May 8 on Franceinfo Virginie Ruffenach, president of the Rally group at the Congress of New Caledonia (affiliated to the Republicans), at the end of the last sequence of institutional negotiations which ended without agreement between independence and non-independence. The minister of Overseas, Manuel Valls, had bet to bring together around the table all the political movements of New Caledonia, to advance on the discussions of the institutional future of the country.
“This agreement today cannot be independence, quite simply, since the Caledonians have refused it”, says the political leader, who denounces the government’s position. “We cannot thus despise democracy when, three times, the Caledonians decide that Caledonia remains French, well the surprisingly minister comes with the only solution of the independence of New Caledonia”, she said.
The project presented by the government provided for the creation of a dual nationality (French and Caledonian) and an international status of New Caledonia, as well as a transfer of sovereign skills. Virginie Ruffenach is concerned about the consequences of transferring sovereign skills: “You have to call a cat a cat. When you transfer the sovereign skills to a territory of 270,000 inhabitants, defense, currency, justice, the maintenance of order and others, when you give another nationality than French nationality on this territory and that you therefore make it have an international recognition status, it is called independence”.
The blocking of institutional discussions, recognized Thursday by the overseas Minister, Manuel Valls, intervenes in a particularly tense context, a year after the riots of May 2024 which had killed 14 and caused more than two billion euros in damage.
The president of the Rally group is also surprised by the attitude of the Minister of State, which she deems “Very partisan” and breaking with the expected neutrality of the state. “We ask ourselves whether the project of Manuel Valls is a project which is supported by the authorities of the State. We are a little perplexed on the minister’s approach at that moment. As soon as the negotiation began, he posed this independence project on the table”, she deplores.
