Page 15 - IB July 2021

New Caledonia New Caledonia

(UNI) group in New Caledonia’s Congress, alongside the other a former president of the employers’ federation MEDEF-NC,
pro-independence parliamentary group, UC-FLNKS and Nation- Hnepeune won little favour with the Parti Travailliste, the
alists. trade union confederation USTKE and even some members of
his own party.
Political jousting For this reason, Thierry Santa continued as caretaker Presi-
Under the provisions of the 1998 Noumea Accord, New dent from February until July, while UNI and UC tried to forge
Caledonia’s Congress elects 11 members of a multi-party gov- a compromise over the top job, the allocation of government
ernment, with seats determined by the size of parliamentary portfolios and positions in the provincial assemblies and Con-
groups in the legislature. These 11 politicians in turn choose a gress. After Mapou’s election, Samuel Hnepeune resigned from
new President and Vice President from amongst their mem- the government, to be replaced by the next person on the UC
bers. list – Vaimu’a Muliava of Eveil océanien, who voted for Thierry
Mapou’s election to the top job came after months of delay, Santa as President in the last government!
following the collapse of the government led by President As Islands Business goes to press, there is further manoeu-
Thierry Santa last February. In April, independence parties vring for the choice of President (speaker) of the Congress,
won six of eleven seats in the government – the first majority currently held by UC’s Roch Wamytan. With Virginie Ruffenach
for independence supporters since the multi-party, collegial of the Rassemblement-Les Républicains party nominating for
executive was created in 1999. the job, Wamytan may lose crucial EO votes if the Wallisian
However as the Congress chose new government members party seeks to balance the allocation of leadership across
from competing parliamentary groups, anti-independence different political institutions. However bitter brawls in the

It will be much harder to advance a progressive agenda today. In the midst
of the COVID-19 pandemic and US-China geopolitical tensions, President
Mapou leads a multi-party government where half the members oppose
his economic and political program.

tacticians planted a poison pill. A member of the Loyalist anti-independence camp – between the Avenir en Confiance
bloc voted for Louis Mapou’s UNI list instead of their own coalition and Philippe Gomes’ Calédonie ensemble party –
candidate. This extra vote, and another from the left-wing means that Wamytan may still have the numbers to return to
Parti Travailliste, gave UNI three seats in the new government office if the Right cannot unify around a candidate.
instead of two. The UC-FLNKS list led by businessman Samuel
Hnepeune got three seats, rather than the four they were Down to work
expecting. After weeks of uncertainty, President Mapou now says it’s
The Right’s anonymous vote for UNI served a double pur- time to get on with the job. “This is the responsibility of any
pose. Even with an FLNKS majority in government, the 3-3 government,” he said. “We want to use this time; we want to
split between UC and UNI exacerbated longstanding differ- get to work.”
ences, requiring extensive debate over who would take the Despite New Caledonia’s relative success in controlling the
presidency. It was also payback to Eveil océanien (EO), whose spread of coronavirus, Mapou wants to push ahead with vac-
candidate Vaimu’a Muliava was fourth on the UC list and cination programs and economic responses to the pandemic. A
missed out. EO is a new Wallisian party that has adroitly de- key priority will be addressing social inequality and the loss of
ployed its three votes in the Congress, alternating its support hope amongst young Kanak and islanders who have borne the
behind the Loyalists and the independence movement. While brunt of the current economic downturn. Another challenge
it backed President Santa as President in 2019, EO joined the will be reprioritising the annual budget, introduced in May by
UC-FLNKS parliamentary group in 2020, voting for UC leader the French High Commissioner while the elected government
Roch Wamytan as Congress speaker. Revenge is a dish best was in caretaker mode. Given the months since the collapse
served cold. of the Santa government, there is a need for some hard finan-
The choice of relative newcomer Samuel Hnepeune to head cial decisions, such as reforming the RUAMM medical pension
the UC list aimed to send a positive signal to the business scheme.
community and ordinary New Caledonians. Hnepeune’s busi- Beyond these domestic priorities, President Mapou must
ness background, however, ruffled many feathers across the also lead New Caledonia towards a third referendum on self-
independence movement, who felt that the presidency should determination under the Noumea Accord.
go to a committed activist. France’s Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu hosted a
Bringing in a fresh face seemed like a good idea after years roundtable in Paris between 25 May and 3 June to discuss the
of musical chairs between elite politicians. Many voters are consequences of a Yes or No vote on the question of inde-
anxious about jobs after the disruption caused by Cyclone pendence and sovereignty. But rather than forge a consensus
Lucas, the coronavirus pandemic, and successive elections about the timing of the next referendum, Lecornu unilaterally
and referendums on self-determination since 2018. But as Continued on page 20

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