A visit under high tension. After more than a week of riots, Emmanuel Macron is on his way to New Caledonia this Wednesday. Objective: to renew the thread of dialogue and accelerate the return to order in Nouméa. The surprise visit of the Head of State was announced Tuesday in the Council of Ministers, as requests for postponement of the draft constitutional law on the electorate, rejected by the separatists, multiply.
In the archipelago, the night from Tuesday to Wednesday “was calmer than the previous one despite two fires in the Nouméa metropolitan area,” the High Commission of the Republic reported in a press release. According to the municipality of Nouméa, two schools and 300 vehicles from a dealership went up in smoke.
Cyberattack of “unprecedented strength”
“Very shortly after the announcement” of its arrival, New Caledonia was also targeted by a cyberattack “of unprecedented force” aimed at “saturating the Caledonian network”, indicated during a conference of press Christopher Gygès, member of the Caledonian collegial government. The attack, consisting of the simultaneous sending of “millions of emails”, was stopped “before there was significant damage”, he said.
In a wealthy neighborhood in the south of Nouméa spared by the riots, Jean, 57, has been taking turns with his neighbors for a week on a barricade intended to prevent possible intrusions. The arrival of the president is “good news”, he believes. “The situation is completely blocked, we must hope that this will allow people to calm down, that a way out will be found. » Emmanuel Macrondo should arrive Wednesday evening or Thursday morning (local time) in the archipelago to set up a “mission” there, said the government spokesperson, without providing further details.
On a dam in Dumbéa, a pro-independence stronghold west of Nouméa, Mike, 52, also wants “Macron to arrive to see what is happening”, while repeating that “we remain in the opposition: it’s no to thawing.” “I don’t understand why our fate must be discussed by people who don’t even live here,” he laments.