Low turnout
Vote: New Caledonia remains French
French gendarmes patrol a roundabout. The strategically important overseas territory of New Caledonia will continue to belong to France in the future. Photo: Clotilde Richalet / AP / dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
The island paradise of New Caledonia is a strategically important location in the Indo-Pacific for France. That is why it is great to breathe a sigh of relief in Paris: The residents are voting against a split for the third time.
The strategically important overseas territory of New Caledonia will continue to belong to France in the future.
At the third and, for the time being, last independence referendum in the island paradise, 96.5 percent of the participants voted to stay with France on Sunday – however, according to the broadcaster 1ère Nouvelle Calédonie, the turnout was extremely low. The archipelago in the South Pacific used to be a French colony, but today it enjoys extensive autonomy.
After much criticism in advance, more than half of the 185,000 or so eligible voters did not vote. The participation was just under 44 percent. In 2018 and 2020 it was still more than 80 percent. Separatists had called for a boycott before the election. Because of the corona pandemic and the close proximity to the French presidential elections, they had called for the vote to be postponed.
Disappointing for many
The result is likely to be a disappointment, especially for the Kanaks – New Caledonia’s Melanesian natives. Many of them have long been hoping for a state of their own. Now, in a transition phase until June 2023, a new status for New Caledonia is to be prepared, which is to be confirmed by a further vote.
New Caledonia is strategically and militarily important for France as a location in the geopolitically contested Indo-Pacific, where Beijing is trying to gain more and more influence. The French armed forces maintain a base in the archipelago. In addition, New Caledonia has extremely rich deposits of nickel, the metal that is essential for the manufacture of cell phones and flat screens, for example. According to experts, if France, which has so far exported significant quantities of nickel thanks to its overseas territory, lost its influence, China could riot on the metal.
For the third time
A majority in New Caledonia had already spoken out against the separation in November 2018 and October 2020 – but at that time it was only 56.4 and 53.3 percent respectively. The Nouméa Agreement of 1998 provided for up to three independence referenda as part of the decolonization of New Caledonia.
The Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) called on the member states even before the result was announced not to recognize the result. The MSG is an organization of states with a Melanesian population founded in 1983. MSG General Director George Hoa’au said the situation in the archipelago is currently not appropriate for a free and fair election.
New Caledonia with the main island Grande-Terre is under the territorial sovereignty of France, whose capital Paris is 18,000 kilometers away. The archipelago receives 1.5 billion euros in aid from Paris every year. The opponents of independence fear an economic decline should the connections to France be cut.
James Cook was the first European to set foot on the Nouvelle-Calédonie archipelago (literally translated: Nova Scotia) on his second voyage to the South Seas in 1774. In 1853 it was taken over by France and was initially used as a convict island. Today, in addition to the indigenous people, descendants of the colonists and many immigrants from other Pacific countries live there.