independence activists denounce a brand new “colonial pact” | EUROtoday

The particular fee of the Congress of New Caledonia to renegotiate the “nickel pact” met for the primary time on Monday April 22. It materializes the issue in reconciling political and social pursuits whereas negotiations on the institutional future are at a standstill and tensions are crystallizing across the thaw of the voters.

In the entourage of President Louis Mapou, who requested authorization from Congress to signal the “nickel pact”, we refuse to make any feedback. We barely clarify the prudence of this initiative, to keep away from giving the impression of forcing the hand of the deliberative meeting. Nickel is a delicate topic and, after having regained jurisdiction with the Nouméa settlement, it was not till 2009 that the elected representatives of Congress managed to discover a fragile stability with the adoption of the plan for the event of nickel. mineral sources.

The elected separatists who arrange this fee, supported by the non-independence members of Caledonia collectively, intend to acquire solutions to sure questions posed by the pact and to claim their imaginative and prescient on the topic. It additionally goals to keep away from disavowing Louis Mapou, by refusing him to signal the pact, whereas giving itself time to ease the strain.

Sovereignty

In a twenty-five web page evaluation, detailed throughout conferences organized within the 4 corners of “Caillou”, Ronald Frère, near the president of the Caledonian Union (independence), presents the settlement as a “colonial pact to regain control of the raw materials of New Caledonia”. On the bottom, anger is rising and materializing in mine blockades everywhere in the nation.

The natural regulation proposal aimed toward briefly restoring nickel competence to the State, tabled on March 26 by the deputy Nicolas Metzdorf (Renaissance), one of many non-independence leaders, is a breeding floor favoring the event of this concept. An actual casus belli for the independence world which considers nickel as one of many predominant vectors of accession to full sovereignty.

“There is no withdrawal of sovereignty, none! We have to stop saying anything because afterwards, the activists on the ground say: “The State wants to steal our nickel.” It's lunar »argued former Secretary of State Sonia Backès, chief of the loyalists and president of the Southern province. “The youth see that we come here to take and we have nothing. There is no rebalancing. The true meaning of the Bercy agreement is not real on the ground”, defined the spokesperson for a collective of younger individuals behind blockades of mining websites within the Canala area. They notably concern the prospect of a pointy enhance in mining exercise opened up by the pact.

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