{"id":25335,"date":"2021-02-03T21:20:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:20:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=158134"},"modified":"2021-02-03T21:20:30","modified_gmt":"2021-02-03T21:20:30","slug":"new-caledonia-government-collapses-amid-storm-and-assets-sale-crisis-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/03\/new-caledonia-government-collapses-amid-storm-and-assets-sale-crisis-2\/","title":{"rendered":"New Caledonia government collapses amid storm and assets sale crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a>New Caledonian territorial President Thierry Santa (speaking) … 15 days to to form a new government. Image: Les Nouvelles Cal\u00e9doniennes<\/div>\n
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By RNZ Pacific<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

A coalition government in New Caledonia has collapsed after indigenous pro-independence politicians resigned, citing persistent economic issues and unrest over the sale of nickel assets.<\/p>\n

The South Pacific archipelago has been gripped by riots over the sale process of Brazilian mining giant Vale\u2019s local nickel business, with protesters saying a locally-led offer had been unfairly overlooked.<\/p>\n

New Caledonia, with a population of about 290,000, is also grappling with the question of decolonisation.<\/p>\n

The crisis comes as New Caledonia is facing widespread flooding and damage from Tropical Cyclone Lucas.<\/p>\n

The island chain enjoys a large degree of autonomy but depends heavily on France for matters such as defence and education.<\/p>\n

Referendums in 2018 and 2020 both narrowly rejected independence. A third referendum due by the end of next year should finally settle the issue, under the terms of a 1998 Noumea accord with France.<\/p>\n

Five pro-independence politicians \u2013 three from the Union Caledonian (UC) and two from the National Union for Independence (UNI) \u2013 both members of the pro-independent Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), in the 11-member executive have resigned.<\/p>\n

Upheaval marks end of Santa coalition
<\/strong>The upheaval marks the end of President Thierry Santa\u2019s multiparty government after 18 months in power. Congress must elect a new government within 15 days.<\/p>\n

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#DirectLNC<\/a> #LncPays<\/a> Les ind\u00e9pendantistes de Nouvelle-Cal\u00e9donie font chuter le gouvernement https:\/\/t.co\/EhEUsMybEf<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Les Nouvelles cal\u00e9doniennes (@lncnc) February 2, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Santa-led anti-independence coalition, L\u2019avenir en confiance, claimed in a statement that the pro-independence legislators were causing a political crisis in the middle of a pandemic and amid economic and social tensions.<\/p>\n

The pro-independence members\u2019 resignation letter said a \u201ccrisis of confidence\u201d had set in and that the government was not functioning properly at an important time when preparations were needed to be made for the next independence vote.<\/p>\n

The letter also said the nickel asset sale favoured the interests of multinationals over locals.<\/p>\n

New Caledonia is the world\u2019s fourth-largest nickel producer, behind Indonesia, the Philippines and Russia.<\/p>\n

Demand for nickel, mainly used in making stainless steel, is expected to grow rapidly as a raw material in electric vehicle batteries.<\/p>\n

Vale wants to sell its nickel business in New Caledonia to a consortium of buyers including Swiss commodities trader Trafigura.<\/p>\n

Indigenous Kanak leaders had supported an earlier bid designed to keep majority ownership under the control of the island territory.<\/p>\n

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"Print<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Caledonian territorial President Thierry Santa (speaking) \u2026 15 days to to form a new government. Image: Les Nouvelles Cal\u00e9doniennes By RNZ Pacific A coalition government in New\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":400,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1006,2883,432,5,5956,480,5957,7,5958,635,5955,4,5959,12,14,368,5960,5961,5962,855],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25335"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/400"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25335"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25336,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25335\/revisions\/25336"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}