Review of Luc STEINMETZ’s speech on 07.09.2024

Hello everyone,

The APROFED association is back with you this week following the intervention of historian and lawyer Luc Steinmetz during the NC la 1ere television news on Saturday, September 7,  on the theme of federalism  in New Caledonia, which you can watch again at the following link:  7:30 p.m.: Edition of Saturday, September 7, 2024 – Nouvelle-Calédonie La 1ère: the streaming replay (francetvinfo.fr)  or consult the transcription of his intervention at the following link:  Luc Steinmetz, historian: “Without knowing it, New Caledonia has already been organized in a federal manner since 1988” (francetvinfo.fr)

The association welcomes his intervention.

This recalls in the preamble that  New Caledonia has already been organized in a federal manner since 1988  and that the term “federal” is present in the text of the Matignon-Oudinot agreements.

He also recalls that  this federal organization was renewed in 1998  with the Noumea Agreement and the organic law that followed.

Regarding the  federalism recently proposed by the loyalists, he states that its outlines are not yet known .  It is still appropriate to wait. The association remains vigilant on this subject and mentions in advance that it opposes any federalist project aiming to return either to 1988 as proposed by Virginie Ruffenach (see Les choses simples sont plus claires… – Virginie Ruffenach | Facebook ) or to cover up a project of hyper-provincialization or autonomy of the provinces as proposed by Sonia Backès, which some consider to be the antechamber of partition (see Mathias Chauchat sur X : “Vieille lune bien peu crédible. Dans le fédéralisme avec la France, qui serait le chef d’État, qui serait le Parlement, qui serait la Cour suprême ? Dans le fédéralisme interne, on voit l’antichambre de la partition. @la1ere” / X )

As Luc Steinmetz points out,  there is  internal federalism that already exists within the framework of the specific organization of New Caledonia .  All that remains for the association is to finalize the contours of an “external federalism” within the framework of a new relationship with France , not only with the territory, but why not with all the overseas territories,  as the historian mentions at the end of his intervention,  who specifies that one could imagine an overall strengthening of the powers of Caledonia, in relation to the national State, that is to say the French Republic.

Where the association diverges somewhat from Mr Steinmetz’s remarks is when he compares federalism to decentralization.  As we point out in one of our articles on our site (see  Federalism versus decentralization – APROFED  ), this is for the State to pretend to share power. Local  authorities  in reality have very little autonomy .  The State continues to centralize and control everything from Paris . Even if the presence of a Caledonian Congress voting on its own country laws would suggest a political devolution, one of the most important decentralizations among the 4 that exist (see  Decentralization, public policies and power relations – 2. Decentralization policies – Presses de l’Université de Montréal (openedition.org)  and  Devolution of power — Wikipedia (wikipedia.org)  ). This is not the case. This ( congress) remains a decoy, an empty shell.  However,  federalism is not a simple decentralization but rather a sharing of skills, a sharing of sovereignty  (internal for New Caledonia, external for the State).

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

The APROFED association