On Wednesday October 2, Michel Barnier faced his first session of questions to the government as Prime Minister. The opportunity for him to leave his mark on the New Caledonian issue, and to greatly annoy, once again, the presidential camp.
The Macronist deputy from New Caledonia Nicolas Metzdorf, who in the previous legislature was rapporteur of the bill at the origin of the independence insurrection on the Caillou – text which Michel Barnier announced the abandonment on Tuesday – challenged the Prime Minister with rare virulence. Accusing him of having “humiliated the Caledonians” in its general policy statement. “You had no words for them, he says to him. (…) You humiliated them by abandoning the thaw of the electoral body in New Caledonia. They feel abandoned by the Republic. »
A tone not conducive to discussion “respectful” that Michel Barnier wishes to establish in the Hemicycle. So he dispatched the minister responsible for overseas territories, François-Noël Buffet, to respond to the loyalist deputy. There is no “no concrete answer in your response, Mr. Minister”he rebuked him. “There is no desire to announce the thaw of the electorate, and there is no sum announced to Caledonians for the survival of their business. Disappointing! “, he said before sitting down again.
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“Constructive approach”
Change of tone, at the end of the session, with the independence member of the archipelago Emmanuel Tjibaou, who sits in the communist group Democratic Republican Left. The son of the historic leader of Kanak nationalism Jean-Marie Tjibaou, “mandated by the Independence Movement of Caledonian Progressives”, greeted him the announcements made the day before by Michel Barnier, who “certainly take a constructive step” et “bear, I hope, the mourning of a method”. The MP described “a country bruised in its flesh”in the grip of a crisis for more than four months “which brings us to our knees”.
And this time, the Prime Minister himself responded to the MP. Michel Barnier, who announced on Tuesday the postponement of the provincial elections until the end of 2025 and the abandonment of the constitutional bill on the unfreezing of the electorate, insisted on the break that he wishes to establish with the previous government, stressing that he has “took the time to consult all elected officials, in all their diversity” since his arrival at Matignon.
“In agreement with the President of the Republic, we will take the time to rework the question of the electorate, to find appeasement and the path to a political institutional solution in New Caledonia”he promised, displaying his “respect for all communities, all political forces” of the archipelago.
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