French Senate endorses postponement of New Caledonia's provincial elections

A controversial piece of legislation to postpone the date for New Caledonia's crucial provincial elections passed its first hurdle in the French Senate on Wednesday.

The vote was endorsed on Wednesday in the French Upper House by a large majority of 299 votes for and 42 against.

The day before, another piece of constitutional legislation was also tabled before the Council of Ministers as a matter of emergency just hours after Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's second Cabinet in a week was appointed.

Earlier this month, the postponement of the polls was approved in principle by New Caledonia's Congress.

In the form of an "organic law", it is part of the implementation process of the "Bougival" text, which was signed on 12 July near Paris, and initially signed by all of New Caledonia's parties pro-France and pro-independence.

However, one of the main components of the pro-independence movement, the FLNKS (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), denounced the agreement a few days later, saying it did not meet the party's demands in terms of quick accession to full sovereignty.

The FLNKS said their negotiators' signatures were therefore now considered null and void.

For the purposes of implementing the text, despite very tight deadlines, one part of its implementation should leave more time for negotiations and it was perceived one way to achieve this was to postpone the elections (which were scheduled to be held not later than 30 November) until not later than end of June 2026.

The move, if it succeeds, has to happen before 2 November. It means means before then, the same text has to be endorsed by the Lower House, the French National Assembly.

If it fails, then the provincial elections' date will have to be maintained at the original date and under the current voting restrictions.

Before that, New Caledonia's provincial elections were already postponed twice (initially scheduled to take place in May 2024, then re-scheduled to no later than December 2024), mostly because of the civil unrest that shook New Caledonia after the deadly May 2024 riots.

The riots were themselves the culmination of pro-independence protests and marches that escalated in response to a French government project to modify the conditions of eligibility for local elections and lift previous restrictions on the electoral roll.

At the time, pro-independence opponents said this would have resulted in indigenous voters being placed in a minority situation because their vote would have been diluted.

During debates in the Senate this week, what was presented as a "bipartisan" Bill also stressed the need to resolve current disagreements on the Bougival agreement and take more time to include FLNKS to the rest of New Caledonian parties who, on their part, stuck to their respective signatures.

Opponents to the text, among others the French Greens (les Ecologistes) and the Communist Party, maintained that FLNKS had rejected the Bougival deal "in block", because such agreement simply "doesn't exist".

Passage en force

They are accusing the French government of attempting to pass the text "by force".

The same text is scheduled to be tabled before the Lower House (National Assembly) on 22 October 2025.

But in the Lower House, debates will be tougher and the final vote will be much more uncertain: and the Lower House majority is not clear, MPs being split between the centre right, the far right, the centre left and the far left.

While reactions from the pro-France politicians in Nouméa on Thursday were mostly favourable to the latest Senate vote, the now-dominat component within FLNKS, the Union Calédonienne (UC), held a media conference on Thursday to once again express its disapproval to postpone the local elections.

Instead, it wanted the original dates - before 30 November -to be maintained, along with the current voting eligibility restrictions.

Fresh talks with FLNKS?

UC President Emmanuel Tjibaou told local media this did not exclude that further negotiations could be held after the local elections.

But in reference to the May 2024 riots, Tjibaou said he feared that "the same mistakes of the past ... The passage en force... are being made again".

He said discussions and debates must prevail on the Parliament floor.

Tjibaou is flying to Paris at the weekend to take part in the National Assembly (of which he is one of the two elected MPs for New Caledonia) vote on 22 October 2025.

"This is a message of alert, an appeal to good sense, not a threat", UC Secretary General Dominique Fochi added.

"If this passage en force happens, we really don't know what is going to happen," Fochi said.

Another component of the pro-independence chessboard in New Caledonia, the PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party), usually described as more "moderate", has also reacted on Thursday to the French Senate's vote.

"This is rather good news, because it is part of the Bougival timeframe and we support this", PALIKA leader Charles Washetine said.

PALIKA and UPM (Progressist Union in Melanesia) both decided to distance themselves from the FLNKS, of which they were both key members, at the end of August 2024.

Since the Bougival agreement was signed, PALIKA and UPM have sided in support of the deal, which envisions the creation of a "State of New Caledonia", of a French-New Caledonian dual nationality and the short-term transfer of key powers from France, such as foreign affairs.

Those notions, amounting to a de facto Constitution for New Caledonia, are to be also later included to translate into appropriate legal terms in the French Constitution.

This should be submitted to Parliament "by the end of this year", Lecornu assured during his maiden Parliament address on Tuesday 14 October.

And sometime "this spring (2026)", qualified citizens of New Caledonia would also have to vote on the text by way of a referendum dedicated to the subject.

Bougival agreement 'allows a path to reconciliation' - Lecornu

"The Bougival agreement allows a path to reconciliation. It must be transcribed into the Constitution", Lecornu told the National Assembly.

Also speaking in parliament for the first time since she was appointed Minister for Overseas, Naïma Moutchou assured that in her new capacity, she would be there "to listen" and "to act".

This, she said, included trying to re-engage FLNKS into fresh talks, with the possibility of bringing some amendments to the much-contested Bougival text.

"To translate Bougival into facts takes time".

She also admitted that a real consensus was needed.

"Can't do without the FLNKS... Won't do without the FLNKS"

"One cannot do without the FLNKS. And we will not do without the FLNKS", she said.

She spoke in defence of the postponement of local elections.

"To postpone elections does not mean to postpone democracy, it means giving it back solid foundations, it is to choose lucidity rather than precipitation", she told MPs.

Meanwhile, on Thursday in Paris, PM Lecornu, who formed his cabinet on Sunday, has survived his first batch of two simultaneous motions of no-confidence in the National Assembly.

The first, filed by far-right Rassemblement National (RN), received the support of 271 MPs, not enough to reach the necessary 289 votes.

The second, filed by far-left La France Insoumise (LFI, France Unbowed), received 144 votes.

During the pre-censure vote debates, New Caledonia's MP, pro-France Nicolas Metzdorf, took the floor for a few minutes telling MPs that if it could serve as an inspiration, in the French Pacific territory, local laws make it impossible for a government to be toppled less than eighteen months after it is formed.

Lecornu, who is very knowledgeable on New Caledonia's affairs because of his two-year experience as French Minister for Overseas (2020-2022), was all smiles.