Im actually more suprised France still managed to keep New Caledonia after almost 2 centuries

dude dropped a "roblox" and "fortnite" in the span on 10 seconds

Average Day in France: A protest/civil unrest in at least one part of the country

New Caledonia is the 3rd largest producer of Nickel in the world. That is all they want

I do admire the the independence strategy of 'if we do enough independence votes eventually one will pass'

Didn’t have “Troubles 2: French Edition” on my 2024 bingo card but that’s been happening a lot these last few years.

You made a mistake, the term "Caldoche" doesn't refer broadly to french metropolitans in kanaky/caledonia but specifically to the old generations of settlers, sometimes descendants of deported criminals and other descendants of european settlers that have been there for a few generations. As I understand it they largely form an old local bourgeoisie and are usually distinguished from the first-gen immigrants from france (that are called "Metros" locally). Caldoches have a nastier rep than Metros (and I guess a more colonial attitude on average ?). I think it's about the same sociological position than the "Békés" in the Antilles.

Caldoche are there for 200 years , they aren’t Metropolitans .

Half Australian/New Caledonian here ..... there are a LOT of things that are not quite right about this video starting with the demographics of New Caledonia it is an EXTREMELY multicultural place that has had many waves of migrants over the decades that often were escaping French colonial wars like the Vietnamese population or the Algerians , then there are various Polynesian people living there as well as Indonesians that were brought there by France to work on mines farms and roads. There is also a LOT of people that declare themselves "mixed" that is in fact the second largest demographic group there. And the political views of these groups some of which have been there for multiple generations varies significantly. The second thing is that what France is wanting to amend is the local electoral roll that has not had amendment since 1998 and that currently excludes many people that were born on the island and then left at a young age including Kanak people the problem was not weather to amend or not to amend but was on the fine details to actually make sure it is 100% fair and there were efforts made for this but not enough and there were serious shortfalls both on the local politics in New Caledonia and the French policy makers in Paris. I will end on the note that generally speaking regardless of ethnicity or political allegiance a LOT of people in New Caledonia are not against independence or at least even greater autonomy, but Political mismanagement and miscommunication both on a local government and French national government scale makes this very complicated as there has been a status quo for 40 years.

Well done, good reporting.

I see most people in the comments gloss over the other natives of New Caledonia, the Wallisians and Futunans, even though they make like 10% of the population

Thanks for the overview on New Caledonia. Very informative.

Genuine question, why is the measurement system the imperial one? It is European news, of course there be more europeans that would watch this, so why wasn't the metric used at 1:22 ? Unless i am proven wrong that there are more americans watching EU news on this channel

So only ethnic votes (here - Kanak) count then? Does this also apply to say...EUROPE? Do we start not counting or start ignoring votes of non-ethnic/non-native Europeans in Europe?

I always like to read the many comments saying the information in these videos is incorrect.

Just a small precision, in 1998 at the Noumea Agreement signed by both parties (20 years agreement), it was agreed at the signature that a sliding electoral body of 10 years of Residency to be put in place for the Provincial Elections during these 20 years. Then, in 2007, President Chirac (under the pressure of independentists) accepted to freeze temporarily the electoral body for people arriving before 1998 only. Because it was against democratic rules, this measure was just a transition until the 3 successive referendums for Independance and the end of Noumea Aggreement... After this 3 referendums (the last one boycotted by the independentists in december 2021, at the very end of the Covid Crisis), negociations should have been taken to discuss the future of New Caledonia (with a link with France since Independence was not chosen). Unfortunately, no parties managed since then to find an agreement, and because the Provincial elections were to be done in 2024, the electoral body was to be "defrozen" before... An agreement was found with 10 years of residency but only with a part of the Indepentists but not with the more radical ones... That is why there are troubles now because they do not agree with this "unfreeze" because they could lose some seats in the New Caledonian next Congress (the country has its own governement and congress). In fact, these riots are done by young unemployed and lost kanaks manipulated by radical independentists. The majority of the population including moderate independists are against the violence and the country autodestruction (infrastructures, companies, shops are now destroyed around Noumea). New Caledonia population wants peace not civil war... A future constitution of New Caledonia must be found very quickly to be agreed by both parties (independentists and pro France). Politicians have lost too much time, the agreement must be done among New Caledonia political parties.

They could gain independence if they convinced just 10% of another group to vote for independence People of European origin only make up 24% (2019) of the islands population and not everybody of this 24% can vote

“Banning TikTok” ok that’s it France “democracy” is not democratic enough to call “democracy” since banning a social media is the same with banning public speech

Thank you very much ❤

This is one way to justifie "banning tiktok"

My 2 cents as an outsider is Macron should have let the vote be delayed due to covid. France probably would have won the 3rd referendum anyway but it would have a lot more legitimacy than it did in our timeline. Might still end up with this same problem though.

Can you imagine if you suggested that only white french could vote in France

Australia and New Zealand definitely don't want the French to leave. The first effect of French departure would be a crash in local living standards and mass migration to Auckland and Sydney, in the same way as has happened with other Pacific islands. Next I imagine the Chinese would be sniffing around for a convenient naval base just off the coast of Queensland.

Weirdly enough, Azerbaijan of all places is apparently giving support to the separatists, probably as a means of getting back at France for giving support to Armenia and Artsakh in recent years.

I think you forget that Azerbaijan and Turkey are thought to have been providing support for New Caledonian separatist movement, as they resented France for openly supporting Armenia. They used to do so with Iran's Azerbaijan region (and still).

What a title.

The question of democratic vote after occupation, displacements, genocides, population colonialism, will never be clear-cut and black and white. The French may be rightly considered pretentious asholes sometimes, but they gave the Kanaks 3 referendums with a lot of the restrictions on who qualifies for the vote according to their demands. The Kanaks should probably have organised themselves around a different agenda of autonomy and cultural rights for a while, and maybe a referendum in a more distant future. Most importantly, the violence of the protests don't give the sentiment that New Caledonia would be well, if it was those who were in charge. I think many people will not want that now, they shot themselves in the foot if you consider that the real catalyst to gaining independence is to win people to your cause.

New Caledonia costs us a lot for nothing, dump the island, the Chinese and the Australia can fight to have it.

He is too busy in Ukraine and Africa that's why. French are stretch thinly and the anti-France take advantage of it.

3:58 and 4:05. Those two words being 7 seconds apart from one another cannot be a coincidence

well explained

Thanks .

Imo… if the french leave… the locals would start migrating to more developed countries… as the new leader would probably be self-serving

This was unexpected

New Caledonia belong to its people. Never stop fighting for your freedom

A huge chunk of the population isn't out off Europeans but other Polynesians Other Polynesians just happen to vote in favour of France

Even if the situations are quite different, its a bit of nonsense that currently french citizens living in the island, contributing to the economy for more than 10 years can't vote for local election and meanwhile in mainland france most illegal immigrant have very high chances to receive french nationality and vote in any election within 10 years too...

Things dont go their way = riots I dont know man seems pretty french to me

"force are families. Network is anti." More than one person said this. All very similar.

Those who live in glass houses, like France, should not throw stones at other people's houses.

Unlike the British which generally withdrew from empire peacefully, the French won't leave until they've been forcibly ejected by war. As with Vietnam, as with Algeria etc. the chances of the Kanuks achieving independence via peaceful means are slim.

wait, why does the French have a colony named new Caledonia. Isn't Caledonia, Scotland?

this presenter is so good at his job! better than any tv anchor

This video depicts all kanaks as independentists, which isn’t the case. It omits to tell that most of the protesters are young people and their main motivations are for pure identity reasons. Yet they are totally free to express and celebrate their culture with no restriction, NC benefits from a large autonomy while receiving a ton of economic support from France. Independency would be economically terrible for the island, which would become a prey for china

Part of my family live in New Caledonia and want it to stay part of France.

Hold off on the hostilities until after my cruise has visited in May 2025.

The NC issue is a very complex one, but it is over all a decolonization issue. The 1988 accords paved the way for decolonizing, the ultimate result aimed by the 1998 accords is independence. The referendum were not supposed to be about 'is it your final say?', they were supposed to be 'are you ready yet for independence?'. The real problem is that NC people were supposed to build their future country and define what is this country's citizenship. They have not been ablebto carry out that work. So the 1998 status quo which was supposed to be a transition is lingering... After 1988, France was supposed to ne a referee overseeing the process that had to be managed by NC people between themselves. Now France is putting pressure on NC people because they have not been able to define their citizenship, their 'common destiny' as stated in the accords. France has made a mistake in rushing things suddenly, but at some point when people are parting, you cannot stay halfway, things have to be done properly. More and more people in mainland France are now fed up with this everlasting process, for a territory that has already acquired much independence but for which we have to send money. Local politicians are to blame for having delayed the process, France for not checking that the process was stalling. Now we are in a situation where we have a French territory where French citizens arrived or born after 1998 are 2nd class citizens. What should have been a process for an orderly independence, a sustainable and well prepared one, is failing due to people wanting de facto indepence while keeping the mainland subsidies.

I sympathize with the native people wanting independence, but their method of doing so is just not one that is acceptable in today’s world. If they succeeded in preventing residents voting because of skin color not citizenship/residency status, that would make an apartheid government.

If this country gained independence, it would look like Haiti in a year.

The fact that the French parliament went ahead with their vote without some negotiation with the Kanaks, shows a certain amount of detachment from the reality of the island. Violent outburst were to be expected.

I get wanting to go your own way, but do they realize that if they go fully independent they’re gonna end up, absolutely poverty stricken without the financial support from France. They’ll end up just like numerous other sad and decrepit island nations.

Why should the Kanak have so much say over the island, disproportionately more than European French people who immigrated there? Also, France played a major role in building the island and independence should not be something that HAS to be considered. Upholding human rights and freedoms is what France should guarantee, not necessarily independence.

I know many Kanaks who are loyalists. Don't assume all kanaks are independentists.

France ranks second to the united states of countries with the largest EEZ. Its a massive country if you also add its marine territory mainly by its overseas territories.

New Caledonia gaining independence would be disastrous for New Caledonia. It will get a lot poorer

Yes I remember the French playing Roblox and Fortnite while fighting the rioters.

Also worth noting that just because people voted to remain part of France it doesn't mean they want further integration into France either.

0:11 is the look you get when you are a student and got the hots for your teacher.

They need to realise that diversity is their strength

There’s a tiny issue in equating the situation of Europeans debating over immigration policy they have always* been in control of with situation of indigenous people favoring the same sovereignty Europeans* enjoy over their countries, but being denied this by the votes of immigrants who arrived under immigration policy obviously not of their own volition does not work. That is, these are meaningfully different circumstances that so completely diverge on the implications of immigration they cannot be categorized as anything but polar opposites. Instead, a better comparison to the former would be a majority native decolonized (ie. sovereign) nation adopting restrictive immigration policy and/or an ethnically restrictive voting franchise. *That* can be criticized on the same terms. Not this, however. I don’t think I’ve seen a more flagrant false equivalency in my life. *There are plenty of notable exceptions as I’m sure have already been noted or will be.

People, this is the first channel that allows you to post a comment. Don't be surprised if it's taken down.

France should give up all its colonial possessions; Kanaky, Maohi Nui, Martinique, Corsica, Guiana, Guadeloupe and others.

Id bet that if they did become independent they would be 1/5 as rich in 10 years or even become a 2nd hati.

I mean, I get it why the people are protesting. But maybe that's a little short sighted. Most of these small island countries/territories couldn't maintain themselves. It's a really dangerous gamble to become independent. It can become better, but there is also a high chance it's worse.

Can’t believe it’s 2024 and there is still the belief that the local people are unable to rule themselves and the colonialists should save the native population from despair. If France cares so much about the local people while don’t they just invest in the territory after letting them go free, through business negotiation and at their free will? I’m from Vietnam here.

France should keep on doing what it is good at which is... 1) Drink Wine 2) Smoke a cigarette 3) Talk about Filosophie

Given that France allows New Caledonia to vote for voting members of the French Parliament this is one of the few instances I support the European power and am against the side I ideologically prefer. New Caledonia is a part of France but also needs to be treated like it by the French government. As a core territory of France, New Caledonia is one of the least developed regions of the country and deserves a higher standard of living for all.

Without France, China moves in.

If France is putting money in more then taking out pay royalties for mining etc

Here is The Great Replacement theory in action, natives being replaced

The Chinese are very interested in New Caledonia, they would like to chase the French from the Archipelago. Not to help the Kanaks, they don’t care, the Nickel ore has a lot of appeal.

the kanak population is around 112k like a small city, what will they do with their indepence if they got it? Proabably move abroad because they would find themselves in the middle ages where there are no jobs or working goverment to support them.

Losing New Caledonia is like losing property. Nothing changes

Ask Putin to provide referendums within all parts of Russia & let's see what would happened !!!

Socialist AND nationalist? Oh dear.

Bougainville moment

Y lo que todos ignoran es que las islas Insulares del pacífico están condenadas ante el avance del cambio climatico y la subida del nivel del mar.

We have nothing to do there or anywhere else.

New Caledonia must be free from French colonism

NO to colonialism !

Some secessionists and turbulent youths itching for a reason to start trouble. Order will be brought back. The current electoral system was made to be temporary by the last agreement signed. It is totally warranted and justified to change the system toward more democracy now that the previous agreement has come due.

Who gets to keep the nickel plants?

I thought diversity was our strength and migration imporoved the economy 🤔

Although the violence is horrible (especially towards people and businesses who have nothing to do with it), France has been quite annoying in holding on to its territories, and the 2021 referendum wasn't fair, as the COVID-19 pandemic was disproportionately affecting Kanak communities, so that's why they wanted to postpone it, but the French settler population pushed it through anyways, because they feared they would lose if the pandemic ended. Because of that, the Kanak population boycotted the referendum, violating the basic principle of the whole process in which the population of an island votes on its future, as the referendum was rushed through in a moment where one vital community wasn't in a proper position to vote, and boycotted it because of a perceived bias by the other. Even though I condemn all vioence against people and businesses who aren't involved in any way, I've been becoming increasingly angry at France's foreign policies towards its current and former territories, as in Africa many countries were forced to sign an agreement with their colonizer to grant them unprecedented control over their natural resources and politics in exchange for independence, and when some of them tried to rescind those deals, like Togo in the 1960s, France instigated military coups to install friendly governments to replace them (Togo is still in a military dictatorship today). And even though you might think that they would have only done so in the Cold War and not today, I'm not so sure about that, as many have complained about France's undue influence today, making those countries fertile candidates for anti-French resentment (Like Mali and Niger, where France gets a lot of their Uranium); In fact, many of those countries have suffered military coups by disgruntled officers in part because of this, and have allied themselves with Russia, which isn't a good alternative either. That's how tragic the situation is, and it doesn't help that France's foreign policiy is arguably neo-colonialist.

It's so very mysterious

Macron has been as sleek as an enraged elephant bull.

In 1853, France took over New Caledonia, and used it as a penal colony, transporting 40,000 convicts there from 1864-1897. The French intentionally populated the territory with French citizens, displacing the Indigenous Kanak communitie

The most important question is what is France doing there in the first place? Kanak should take a hint from Algeria

It doesn't believe to them in the first place

They will soon run out of countries to exploit. Terrible injustice.

France: Support wokeism. Also France: Still have colonies around the world. (Sugarcoating as "overseas territories")

Why is European Union not CRITICISING France regarding the TikTok ban, they be pretty quick to shout Human Rights violation when the Asian and Arab nations do the same. Hypocrisy at its finest.

Those extreme Kanaks also disrespecting the Melanesians from Wallis and Futuna (20% of the population) like the most basic crass racists are ridiculous. Bringing shame to Polynesians whatever your views on their independance is. Also do we realise this expansion of voting rights in LOCAL elections (not even regional, national or referendums) for people who have been legally there for over 10 years seems legitimate? They pay local taxes yet cannot vote?!

wow .. Did France still own New Caledonia? .. i thought Colonialism was dead and gone .. they used to test nukes on the tropical pacific islands not that long ago ..

the 10% of people in New Caledonia who are Polynesian are largely from Wallis & Fortuna with only a small minority are from French Polynesia . 8.3 % Wallisian / Fortunian and 2 % Tahitian / French Polynesian .

I remembered my cousin brother who is now a lecturer in university in png who said when his mother a medical doctor visited new caledonia and observed that despite the obvious sign of wealth prosperity in new caledonia the indigenous people were not all that developed propered and taken care off.... In the south pacific esp in African Pacific when injustice is done to its people it might result in some consequential results from where it starts. Paris needs to be aware the Oafia is watching and the end is nigh for France

Looks like the french have still not learned anything from the countless colonial conflicts in the past.

After 3 referendums that they lost, finally allowing people to vote that have lived there for 25 years the rioters went wild. That‘s the best reason against independence.

I went there in 98 it's really pretty

They may gain their independence but over time, they will lose all the skilled workers there as well as French subsidies and the island will sink into poverty. Of course they will blame the French for that, claiming that colonisation brought them misery.