"The Bougival project locks up the possibilities of access to full sovereignty for New Caledonia"

The press releases from the Caledonian Union and the political bureau of the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) on Saturday, July 26, broke the unanimity that commentators had previously shown in welcoming the "historic agreement" of Bougival (Yvelines) establishing the advent of the "State of New Caledonia." One denounces the conditions of the negotiations behind closed doors under strong pressure from the State, particularly on the financial level, as much as the spirit, the principles of the agreement and the institutional consequences it implies. The other, in a very reserved response, defers the decision to its congress, which will take place in August. Opposition to this text was already very perceptible on social networks, revealing the extent of the disappointment and emotion aroused by what is seen as "a historic setback" and a succession of renunciations that are difficult to understand in the independence movement.

The project of Manuel Valls, French Minister for Overseas Territories, presented in May in Deva, New Caledonia, carried the idea of "shared sovereignty" with France, with the still vague promise of an internationally recognized state freely associated with France, the very idea of which had provoked the ire of the Loyalists. The Bougival project, for its part, opens up a completely different perspective by permanently enshrining the Caledonian state in the French Constitution and by locking in the possibilities of access to full sovereignty by the requirement of a qualified majority of more than 60% in the local Congress followed by the validation by the French State of a jointly developed project submitted to a referendum among Caledonian nationals. So many obstacles which do not in themselves extinguish the right to self-determination that France otherwise recognizes, but which make it almost unreal for today's generations to the satisfaction of the State and the Loyalists.

France is not giving up any sovereign powers except for foreign affairs, which it agrees to share with the Caledonian State, whose diplomacy will remain subject to France's international commitments and respect for its fundamental interests; a highly controlled and limited diplomacy, as is already the case through agreements between New Caledonia and neighboring Pacific countries. Caledonian nationality will not have any more substance since it will remain subsidiary to French nationality. A Caledonian will not be able to renounce one without renouncing the other. What more will it bring than the current Caledonian citizenship, which offers some specific rights locally?

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