Dual federalism – a vision shared by A. Christnacht

Dual federalism – a vision shared by A. Christnacht
02 December 2024

Dual federalism – a vision shared by A. Christnacht

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is coming back to you this week to forward to you a  report published on December 7, 2021 by Alain Christnacht, former High Commissioner of New Caledonia  and co-author of the preamble to the Noumea Accord in 1998 , which you can find at the following link:  In New Caledonia, a decisive referendum on December 12? | Terra Nova

While the entire report is interesting and worth reading, the association will simply share with you the  5 recommendations made by the author  as a conclusion, with which it fully agrees, namely:

  1. Alongside the consultation of the expanded Committee of Signatories, bring together a task force of experts including academics and particularly foreigners to inventory solutions and respond to the committee’s questions.

As a reminder, the association had, at the end of June, made an identical proposal,  calling for the “world of experts” (academics) to be involved in drafting an agreement to be submitted to the population by referendum.

  1. Bring together the information missions created in the National Assembly (before and after its renewal) and in the Senate to, as far as possible, remove the question of the follow-up to consultations from the oppositions due to national election campaigns. 
  2. Involve Caledonian civil society through its organizations, associations, unions, and even through groups of citizens drawn at random

The association  welcomes the desire of the new president of the congress, who came from the Oceanian awakening, to allow civil society to express itself within the institution . Hoping that this project of participatory democracy, as she calls it, will come to fruition and continue.

  1. Deepen the institutional system resulting from the agreements along the path of an accentuated double “federalism” (adjustment of the powers of the provinces and of New Caledonia and transfer of new powers to New Caledonia).

This is the project we have been defending since the beginning of 2024.

  1.  Promptly initiate discussions on the future conditions of self-determination, electoral body and trigger conditions.

The association again agrees, particularly with the term “quickly.”  It is indeed appropriate for the association to quickly find an agreement in order to continue building a common destiny.  Because if the May uprising took us back 40 years, the resumption of radical discourse and the maintenance of hardline positions on both sides risk taking us further back in time, namely 140 years (1878).

If on the pro-independence side, a 20-year solution has been formulated 1  as well as an interest in the federal project supported by the loyalists which remains to be specified 2 , it would be appropriate for the State to put an end to the “yo-yo policy” consisting of sharing powers with a community in order to better take them back later  as was the case with the Deferre framework law in the 1950s (sharing) and the Billotte and Jacquinot laws in the 1960s (resumption) which led to the demand for independence in the 1970s and the events of the 1980s. The pro-independence supporters say they are tired of this practice and consider  the Noumea Accords as an achievement, a minimum agreement which cannot be called into question,  which is also shared by the association.

To quote an Arab proverb, taken up by former President J. Chirac, the State and loyalists should be careful to “never push a cat into a corner”, under penalty of a new phase of escalation in the ongoing revolt.

This desire of A.Christnacht to quickly initiate discussions is all the more important as other emergencies, particularly climate-related ones, demand and require our full attention.

Unfortunately, this is not a given, if we are to believe the words of the current president of the congress   : “I think that every political leader is well aware of the urgency,  we simply need to succeed in putting aside our postures and our egos to be able to look in the same direction .” 3  because as Christiane Gambey reminded us in her time, the country is more important than egos 4 . 

The association also takes this opportunity to send you another  document by A.Christnacht, entitled “A Caledonian Journey”  which you can read directly at the following link: Un parcours calédonien | Cairn.info, which  recalls in particular that Jacques Lafleur  had no difficulty  with the  restriction of the electoral body  because  it was accepted in 1988, in the signed agreement,  which he repeats in his interview on the events of 2024 (see Alain Christnacht, Négociateur de l’Accord de Nouméa – Évènements 2024 Témoignages. It is therefore surprising that the loyalists, claiming to be the successors of J.Lafleur and wanting to return to the situation of 1988 with their project of “territorial federation” are opposed to the freezing of the electoral body.

4 Christiane Gambey: The country is more important than egos | Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes

We wish you a good read and remind you that federalism is the only solution to reconcile unity in diversity.

The APROFED association