Serious clashes marked the European elections on June 9 in New Caledonia, in the northern districts of Greater Nouméa. In Dumbéa sur mer, the districts of Pic aux Chèvres, Koutio and Apogoti were once again under tension. The police intervened and the four-lane Savexpress was blocked at Païta towards Nouméa. “It’s happening again everywhere, stay at home”advised motorists caught in the maelstrom on Facebook at dawn.
In Dumbéa, the Robert-Abel school planned to welcome voters was burned on Wednesday and the mayor, Yoann Lecourieux, feared a “rioters blow”. He wanted to only open his offices between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. and reduce the number of assessors present to prevent them from taking risks on the road during the 6 p.m. curfew, but he was not heard.
The State had lifted the state of emergency on May 28 in order to be able to organize the European vote and in recent days sent no less than five gendarmerie squadrons, two CRS companies and sixty members of the GIGN as reinforcements – enough to carry to almost 4,000 the number of police officers and gendarmes in the territory of 270,000 inhabitants. At noon, participation stood at 8.81%, close to that of 2019 (8.13%).
Voters, prevented from going to their polling place due to the roadblocks this Sunday morning, tried to present themselves in another office – the 222,831 registered on the general list had to go to only 50 sites, where had been grouped the 296 usual polling stations in the 33 municipalities of the territory. “I tried to go to Dumbéa from Saint-Quentin, but it was impossible, it’s war there this morning”testified a young man from the Wallisian community who came in vain with his father and sister to the town hall of Nouméa.
Evelyne was able to slip a ballot into the ballot box, in the main hall of Nouméa town hall, protected by a large police force, on Place des Cocotiers. “It is important to vote to remain French, and Europe is very present for us, even if we wonder where all our money has gone when we see the mismanagement of the separatists”, she judges as she leaves City Hall. The septuagenarian, resident of the Vallée des Colons, also wants “send a message to Macron”. She recalls that in the 1980s, Caledonians of European origin “thought that Mitterrand would [les] let go. The only one to have defended us was Jean-Marie Le Pen, in the National Assembly. I remember we passed his tapes around under our covers”.
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