Opinion on the Bougival Agreement – Part 2

The association is coming back to you as agreed to send you the rest of its opinion regarding the Bougival agreement.

As mentioned in the first part of our opinion (see Opinion on the Bougival Agreement – Part 1 – APROFED ), some interesting new elements brought through this agreement seem interesting such as: the qualifier of State given to New Caledonia , the possible implementation of a Caledonian nationality and a dual nationality with France , the transfer of diplomacy to the territory but restricted to its competences, allowing it to express itself, as an equal, with other States, … However, as mentioned in our article and analyzed by a good number of elected officials and experts both local and metropolitan and even foreign, the implementation of these different notions remains ambiguous , subject for the moment to interpretation and must be clarified by the beginning of 2026 and its presentation to the Caledonian people, for validation.

This ambiguity is thus found from page 3, in the possible transfer of sovereign powers to the territory , which France would seem to consent to, after obtaining the 3 conditions , and not the least, that the request comes firstly from the Congress of the NC by a qualified majority of 3/5, the subsequent establishment of a committee aimed at studying the modalities of this transfer by France, and finally the definitive validation no longer simply by the Caledonian representatives but by the entire population, in other words mission impossible. Rather than continuing with the idea of a dry and brutal independence with France, the independentists are now moving towards a progressive sovereignty with the intention of recovering a power by mandate from 2026 (see New Caledonia, behind the scenes of Macron and Valls’ bet: a State yes, but without independence – L’Express )

The association also recalls that it has always advocated since its creation for the return of the jurisdiction of justice and de facto of its armed wing, the internal security forces, to the territory, for 2 reasons . The first is to respect Montesquieu’s definition of the State, which states that a State must, in order to be designated as such, have the 3 powers: the legislative branch , which sets the rules of society, the executive branch, which applies them , and finally the judiciary, which sanctions those who violate these rules. The second reason is to avoid a repeat of the Covid episode with the interference of justice, and therefore of the State, in a Caledonian jurisdiction , thus thwarting decisions of the Caledonian legislature and executive. Otherwise, there is no point in having a Congress, nor a government, provinces and municipalities if it is for the State to decide everything. This is why we also support the Council of State and Constitutional Council no longer being able to control the laws of countries issued by my NC as far as its powers are concerned. These institutions will nevertheless still be able to formulate opinions.

The proposal presented by the State on page 8 to preserve justice by involving traditional authorities a little more is not sufficient for the association, to the extent that by recovering justice at the local level, it would thus be possible to reform it in depth, with a view to establishing a genuine social and independent justice system, which is currently lacking in mainland France.

As for internal security (police), the establishment of a possible customary law on land of the same description seems to be in line with the demands made by some in NC , particularly customary law enforcement. As for the provincial police, in view of the missions listed, it would seem to be a matter of transferring municipal police forces to the provincial (departmental) level. It remains to be seen what the municipalities think on this point. The state (national) police, however, remains a sovereign responsibility, which is also surprising insofar as New Caledonia becoming a nation-state via the Bougival Agreement, it should de facto recover the competence linked to the national police. The French State should only retain the prerogatives relating to international treaties such as on terrorism, war criminals, drug trafficking at the borders, etc.

Still on the subject of skills, the association is pleased to note on page 9, the mention of the possible transfer of the last skills of Article 27 of the ADN and that of the ADRAF , even if these will have to be the subject of a request by the Congress of the NC, in other words the loyalists, thus risking never being transferred . It would be surprising otherwise insofar as they, at the head of the country during almost the entire ADN, never asked to recover these skills. It is surprising to read that the modalities of transfer of these skills will be provided for by the organic law presenting the Bougival agreement insofar as these skills risk falling under the future fundamental law defining the organization of the territory, therefore its skills, including those of Article 27 and the ADRAF.

For the other skills of defense, currency and diplomacy, the association believes that until the idea of a supranational entity with our Pacific neighbors (United States of Oceania) has matured, as we propose on our site in our solution n°2, these skills must remain within the French fold . The establishment of committees, commissions and others aimed at associating representatives of the NC with these skills in order to have their opinions is a concrete example of the legendary French bureaucratic tradition. Hoping that this is not to repeat the philosophy of the left-wing people of 1981 whose political project was to integrate independence leaders at the highest level of local institutions in order to gradually make them share a form of responsibility towards these institutions and, from there, lead them to be satisfied with a simple statutory reform (Gabriel and Kermel, 1985).

Regarding the establishment of an RSMA at the level of the Greater Nouméa agglomeration and the strengthening of the 400 managers project (future framework) with a view to training people native to NC in the sovereign skills of the State seems interesting . It is still necessary for the State to be sincere. The reality is quite different. It should be recalled here that the State civil service is not subject to the law on local employment in New Caledonia , de facto excluding a large number of administrative staff who could be hired locally, even for category C positions (<bac). The State prefers to bring in people from mainland France at great expense more for reasons of “loyalty” than efficiency. If the law on local employment had been more efficient, and not amended by the Constitutional Council, there would certainly be no need for an RSMA, young people, mostly from Oceania, would have thus integrated the job market by their own means. Inequalities and discrimination remain strong against them and have unfortunately increased since the May 2024 uprising without any state control to this effect .

It is surprising that the State, on this subject, wishes to implement regular monitoring and evaluation on the reduction of inequalities between communities and on local public policies put in place for this purpose, when once again this will fall firstly under the jurisdiction of the NC and secondly the State has not done so until now, which could potentially have avoided the riots of 2024.However, the very desire of President Chirac in 2003 to cancel a local census that he considered racist because it planned to mention ethnicity, denotes the desire to no longer make this comparison public and thus hide the misery under the carpet (see CHAPPELL David, The Kanak awakening, The rise of nationalism in New Caledonia, UNC-Madrépores, 2013, p.243),

The example of monetary competence being like the ambiguity of this Bougival agreement where although the independentists had refused the establishment of the euro as a payment currency on the territory and, competent to define new identifying signs including that of the currency, the Caledonians therefore witnessed the replacement of the old coins and banknotes, considered to reflect the colony, by new coins and notes very similar to the European currency, although continuing to be called Francs CFP, demonstrating that when some say “no” at the local level, in mainland France hears its opposite . It should be noted that the name Francs of the French Pacific Colonies (FCFP) remains. It is more at this level that a change should have taken place, to replace it for example by Francs of Kanaky-New Caledonia (FKNC) for example . This title could also have been used for the title of this new agreement instead of Bougival.

Although many socio-economic actors were part of the journey to the metropolis, the agreement , as some of them point out, remains very evasive on these subjects . It is still surprising to read on page 11 of the social project that it will be based on the implementation of ambitious policies, particularly in the areas of health, education, training, the fight against the high cost of living, environmental preservation, etc. Does the State intend once again to intervene in areas that are not its own , through development contracts and thus continue to control these sectors , continuing to make our representatives dependent , sometimes consenting, for the results that we know with:

– a non-existent fight against the high cost of living , giving pride of place to metropolitan commercial and transport groups to the detriment of our overseas populations. While the establishment of a system of equalization of the price of products between mainland France and overseas would make it possible to re-establish the famous equality dear to the French Jacobins who never stop shouting it to the wind but without applying it. It should be remembered here that housing is as expensive there as in Paris and that food costs twice as much in Noumea as in Paris (see CHAPPELL David, The Kanak awakening, The rise of nationalism in New Caledonia, UNC-Madrépores, 2013, p.270). The State allows its compatriots, via indexation (on remuneration) to compensate for this high cost which maintains it at the same time but not for the local populations;;

– environmental preservation that leaves one skeptical . The authorization granted by the State, a shareholder in the metallurgical company SLN of the Eramet group, to install a fuel-powered power station in the heart of the capital itself because  the latter refused to pay for clean renewable energy already existing with the Yaté dam or to supplement it with a solar power station, is the perfect example. The fact here that the NC is competent in environmental matters suits the State’s affairs well, which allows it not to include it in its balance sheet at the level of the Kyoto protocol;

– and in terms of health, the choice to invest in buildings rather than in the local human training of doctors clearly reflects a mentality of domination , with a kind of blackmail that could be put forward in the event of rebellion against the State, to reduce the healthcare system. The sending of mainly interns who have no ties to the territory, the impossibility of bringing in foreign doctors, who nevertheless abound in mainland France, the failure to transform the CHT into a Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) to allow training locally, are the perfect example. It is worth recalling here the cost of the NC Médipôle, initially estimated at around 40 billion and which exceeded 50 billion and not a single billion for training.

Finally, the last point, page 11, but not least, comes back to the Nickel sector , the main export and source of income for the territory and for France. Here again, the association is surprised that this aspect appears because it is once again a competence of the NC . The fact that the State wants to review the mining code and the plan for the development of mineral resources established by the NC Congress speaks volumes about its intentions, which moreover no longer hides them , stating that this resource is strategic for French and European industrial sovereignty . The resource was even listed as such in a European Union document even before the Bougival summit. If it is true that the independentists have made it known that the European Union could prove to be a partner for its nickel, currently mainly exported to Asia, it is clear to the association that with France as an intermediary this risks being to the detriment of the NC. The latter preferring to buy, like cheaper bananas from the Ivory Coast rather than those from the Antilles, low-cost nickel from Indonesia, where the French company Eramet has set up shop with its Chinese partner, largely thanks to revenues from Caledonian Nickel, to produce a low-cost resource compared to NC within the world’s largest nickel mine. The only interest in keeping the French SLN is for the State to maintain the country’s economic engine and control over the entire economy within the French fold. The rejection of a Chinese buyer for the Northern company, in the hands of the separatists, preferring for the time being an Indian competitor, seems to be in France’s interests, in order to strengthen its famous Indo-Pacific axis, where India, let us recall, is also part of the founding group of BRICS. The association also believes that it would be up to NC to negotiate and choose its buyer, not the French State.

We therefore understand at the socio-economic level that the interests of NC are not necessarily the same as those of France.

In conclusion, we hope that this new agreement will be, as its signatories have described it: a “bet on trust,” even if their conceptions of the future of the future State remain diametrically opposed, as academic Eric Descheemaeker points out in the following article:

New Caledonia Agreement in Bougival: A Race Against Time for Demography – Le Salon Beige

or The Bougival Agreement: an immensely risky bet | Conflicts: Geopolitics Review

The association finally notes that this agreement in its current version makes no mention of any amnesty for the people, victims in spite of themselves of the riots , who were forced to do what they never thought they would one day have to do, and many of them are still imprisoned.