New Caledonia: FLNKS to formalize its opposition to the Bougival Agreement this Tuesday

This Tuesday, the Socialist Kanak National Liberation Front (FLNKS) will officially announce its position on the agreement signed in mid-July with the State and the non-independence supporters . The outcome is hardly in doubt: all the structures (parties and unions) that make up the FLNKS have already spoken out against the Bougival agreement, signed on July 12 after ten days of intense negotiations between the pro-independence and non-pro-independence parties under the aegis of the Minister for Overseas Territories, Manuel Valls .

The text, negotiated in the Paris region, notably provides for the creation of a "State of New Caledonia" and a Caledonian nationality, as well as the possibility of transferring sovereign powers (currency, justice, police). But although described as "historic" by loyalists, it immediately sparked a storm of protest from independence activists, as it does not provide for a new referendum on independence.

At the opening of an extraordinary congress on Saturday in La Conception, a suburb of Noumea, FLNKS president Christian Tein called, in a statement read by an activist, for a "clear and unambiguous" rejection of the agreement. Its provisions "are simply an illustration of the administering power's contempt for our struggle for recognition as a colonized people," he said.

Under judicial supervision, Christian Tein is banned from entering the French Pacific archipelago and attended the proceedings via videoconference. Released on June 13 after a year of pretrial detention at Mulhouse-Lutterbach prison (Haut-Rhin), he remains under investigation for his alleged role in the violence that left 14 dead and billions of euros in damage in 2024 in New Caledonia. The political leader has always denied calling for violence.

Inviting activists to "clarify their strategy," Christian Tein said that FLNKS members should remain "open to dialogue," which should take place "only on the terms of access to full sovereignty," "in a bilateral format" with the State, and this "until September 24, 2025," as decided by the movement's previous congress last January. "We must capitalize on our strengths and make the most of them in order to achieve full sovereignty at the latest before the 2027 presidential election," concluded Christian Tein.