Paris (AFP)

Jean Castex receives on Wednesday politicians from New Caledonia, the first meeting of a week of discussion wanted by the government to renew the dialogue between separatists and loyalists, at a "pivotal moment" with the approach of a third consultation on independence.

"The government wants to try to relaunch the dialogue. It is not easy and it will depend on the actors and their ability to get out of their postures (...) to really get to the bottom of the discussions", assures Matignon who believes that "probably nothing will be signed at the end of this week".

But this is not the stated goal.

This meeting should make it possible to organize the third referendum consultation by October 2022, and to work on all the consequences of the "yes" and "no", explains Matignon in a press release.

The government presents as one of the possibilities an "association agreement" in the event of a "yes" to independence, in a working document to which AFP had access.

After the second referendum in October 2020, which saw the no to independence once again winning, but with less room than for the first, Overseas Minister Sébastien Lecornu had conducted numerous bilateral meetings both with the separatists than with the loyalists.

But politicians from both sides did not want to meet.

Sébastien Lecornu then invited five members from each camp to a tripartite meeting in a small committee on Leprédour Island, off the coast of New Caledonia, to succeed in resuming dialogue.

But a few days later, it is the tensions around the sale of the nickel plant in the southern province which had again "handicapped the dialogue", one explains to the Ministry of Overseas.

And despite the agreement reached in March, positions have remained frozen since.

"A political dialogue was to resume on a new basis, this is the meaning of the invitation that the Prime Minister sent at the beginning of April to members of the Leprédour format," adds the ministry.

- Absence of UNI -

The cast will be a little different this time, however, because the National Union for Independence (UNI), one of the two streams of the FLNKS, has announced that it will not respond to the invitation.

In addition, the delegations present will be reinforced by quite a few accompanying persons and elected officials.

The government, however, insisted that it kept its hand extended if UNI wanted to participate in the discussions.

Because the program for this week of exchange is provided.

Thus, on Thursday and Friday, Caledonian politicians will attend presentations of the work carried out by the State services to precisely assess the issues and the consequences of the two possible outcomes during the next consultation: "an almost clinical analysis of the subjects to be treated" in the legal, economic and financial fields, on day-to-day public policies and on the exercise of sovereign powers.

Discussions will be "more political" Monday May 30 in bilateral and Tuesday June 1 in plenary, and will aim to clarify the positions of each other in this last phase of the Nouméa agreement, with a major stake for the government: that dialogue is maintained over time.

The Minister of Overseas Territories said Tuesday in front of the assembly that he made a wish, "in the name of the government of the Republic", that of getting out of the binary choice "a little obscure and sterile" between yes and no, and to try "to find a new path which allows not only peace and harmony, but also the prosperous development of New Caledonia".

"This is the Republican promise that we are forming."

"This does not mean that the intention of the government is to avoid this consultation," said Matignon, but that at the end of this week of discussions all the consequences of the outcome of the consultation have been studied because "Whatever the scenario, the Caledonians will have to live together in peace".

© 2021 AFP