New Caledonia is a French territory in the South Pacific, about 1,500 kilometers to the east of Australia. With a population of nearly a quarter of a million, the archipelago has been under French control since 1853 and was initially used as a penal colony.
Over the past week, deadly violence has broken out over the territory, after French lawmakers in Paris pushed through a constitutional amendment that would allow non-indigenous dwellers to vote in the territory’s provincial elections. The amendment, locals fear, would dilute the vote and electoral power of the indigenous Melanesian Kanak people, who make up about 40% of the archipelago’s population.
Six people have died in the protests, and authorities have imposed a curfew in the capital, Nouméa. News reports claim that over 400 buildings, including businesses and residential property, have been set ablaze since the violence broke out on May 13. France imposed a state of emergency on May 15 that would last 12 days, and all international flights have been grounded or cancelled. Paris has also deployed additional police and gendarmes to restore order.
President Macron arrived in New Caledonia on Wednesday, May 22, in what is being seen as an urgent attempt to quell tensions.
New Caledonia is one of five French island territories in the Indo-Pacific, and is a focal point in President Emmanuel Macron’s plans to bolster the French presence in the Pacific. The archipelago is also the world’s third largest producer of nickel, a metal that has gained immense geopolitical significance with the rise in popularity of battery powered EVs (electric vehicles) and the transition to clean energy.
Tensions on the archipelago have risen since the 1970s when the nickel boom began, and the 1998 Nouméa Accord was critical in establishing a gradual path to autonomy for the territory. The Accord also promised the restriction of voting to the indigenous Kanak and migrants who had moved to the territory prior to 1998.
Three referendums have been held to decide New Caledonia’s independence, but all three have been rejected. The indigenous Kanak boycotted and subsequently, reject the results of the last referendum, which was held in 2021.
The constitutional amendment, voted in France’s lower house of Parliament by 351 votes in favor to 153, is viewed by lawmakers in Paris as crucial for restoring democracy in the territory, which they view as being unfairly restricted by the Nouméa Accord’s provisions of a closed electorate, with voter lists not having been updated since 1998. French lawmakers view the exclusion of 20% of the population from voting as “absurd.” The amendment would allow French residents who have lived in New Caledonia for a minimum of 10 years to be eligible to vote in provincial elections, and add about 25,000 new voters to New Caledonia’s electoral rolls.
The violence has led to a halt in mining operations and led to an increase in the price of nickel in global markets. The archipelago holds the world’s fifth largest reserves of nickel, and is the third largest producer. The three largest mining firms on the island are Koniambo Nickel SAS, which is owned by global mining conglomerate Glencore, Prony Resources New Caledonia and Societe Le Nickel, which is majority owned by French mining giant Eramet. Each firm operates its own processing plant in the territory.
New Caledonia’s nickel industry has faced stiff competition from Indonesia in recent years, which has rapidly emerged as the world’s largest nickel producer, accounting for nearly half of the metal mined globally in 2023. Compared to Indonesia, New Caledonia’s nickel is more expensive to produce and less profitable due to a number of export restrictions.
Despite the nickel production in the territory, inequality is widespread, and the indigenous Kanak people are underrepresented in positions of power.
The protests have been organized by the pro-independence Field Action Coordination Committee (CCAT), one of the groups under the multi-party pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) alliance. CCAT leader Christian Téin has publicly denounced the violence, but squarely lay the blame on the French state for triggering the unrest, claiming that parliament had “turned a deaf ear despite months of mobilization.”