Nicolas Metzdorf, heart of Caillou – Libération

Re-elected in July, the loyalist MP from New Caledonia was the rapporteur for the constitutional reform which set the archipelago ablaze.

Nicolas Metzdorf is at ease in the corridors of this deserted and silent National Assembly, due to the parliamentary recess. He is pleasant, addresses the audience informally on the spot, and answers all questions without hesitation. “Tired”, his eyes still red from the jet lag with New Caledonia, where he arrived the day before, in the heart of the Olympic summer, to meet ambassadors, but at ease. The 36-year-old MP, a radical figure in the loyalist camp that defends the Pacific archipelago’s belonging to France, has since May become a regular on the metropolitan media, more CNews or Sud Radio than Liberation However. And for good reason: he was the rapporteur in the Assembly of the constitutional bill on the New Caledonian electoral body, which set the Rock ablaze and plunged it into a crisis unprecedented since the “events” of the 1980s.

Three questions and there he is, unbuttoning his light shirt and showing off a tattoo: “Caledonian first, French always.” A mantra he got from a former mayor of the commune of Poya, where he was born and raised, like his ancestors before him. His ancestors arrived on the other side of the world in 1843, that is “ten years before taking possession” by the French metropolis, he likes to recall. An old family