The vote must allow“calm the situation” in an archipelago hit by several months of violence. Deputies unanimously approved, on Wednesday, November 6, the postponement of the provincial elections in New Caledonia until November 2025, following riots that left 13 dead and damage worth more than 2 billion euros. These elections, crucial in the archipelago plagued by instability for several months, had to be held before December 15, 2024.
“I believe that postponing the provincial and congressional elections contributes (…) to calm the situation and allow the opening (…) a new space for discussion, debate and I was going to say, beyond that, construction.”expected the Minister of Foreign Affairs, François-Noël Buffet. The riots broke out in May in reaction to the government’s desire to adopt a very sensitive constitutional reform to expand New Caledonia’s electorate.
Approved in the Senate
The text of the law allowing the provincial elections in New Caledonia to be postponed, a promise contained in Michel Barnier’s general policy declaration, was unanimously approved by the electors of the Senate on October 23. The day before, the Congress of New Caledonia had also validated this change – and therefore the extension of the five-year mandate of its elected representatives – by 47 of the 50 votes cast, including those of the separatists.
This is the second time that these elections, initially scheduled for May 2024, have been postponed. The objective, as reported by the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, during his general policy statement, is to give time for dialogue, after the independence insurrection that, Since May 13, it has torn society apart.
The Government is supported by a proposal for a socialist organic law presented in recent days in the Senate, which proposes postponing the general renewal of members of Congress and provincial assemblies until “November 30, 2025”. In his general policy statement, the head of Government announced its postponement. “until the end of 2025”The maximum date set by the Council of State for its celebration is the end of November 2025.
