New Caledonia in uncertainty after the rejection of the "historic" agreement by the FLNKS independence movement

A month after the signing of a draft agreement between all the New Caledonian political forces, described as "historic" by the President of the Republic, the institutional future of New Caledonia is experiencing a new upheaval. This Wednesday, the FLNKS separatists confirmed their rejection of the text agreed upon in a hotel in Bougival (Yvelines), on July 12, under the leadership of Manuel Valls , the Minister of Overseas Territories.

This 13-page document provides for the creation of a "State of New Caledonia" with a fundamental law, a Caledonian nationality, and jurisdiction over international relations. But the "draft Bougival Agreement" is incompatible "with the foundations and achievements of our struggle," stated Dominique Fochi, secretary general of the Caledonian Union and member of the FLNKS political bureau, during a press conference in Noumea on Wednesday morning.

The movement is now calling for new discussions with the state based on the Noumea Accords and for provincial elections to be held in November. They hope this will be a way to potentially reshuffle the balance of local politics.

In a Facebook post earlier today, Overseas Minister Manuel Valls expressed his regret over the decision, deeming it "incomprehensible," while leaving the door open to further discussions to try to save the Bougival project. He will travel to New Caledonia next week.

By July, the negotiators' enthusiasm for the signing of this text was quickly dampened by the independence movement . While each signatory political force was tasked with returning to the archipelago to defend the Bougival project to its base, the FLNKS negotiators faced the anger of their activists, who were fired up by the absence of any reference to a new referendum on independence in the text. "We were condemned to political death," Roch Wamytan, one of the FLNKS negotiators, told Le Parisien. "The reaction of the young people here was terrible; we were seen as traitors and sellouts." The future of New Caledonia is once again clouding over.