The ballot was overwhelmingly favorable to staying in France but boycotted by the separatists.
"The result is a disaster because only 43% of people went to vote," he said in a press conference at his campaign headquarters.
Recalling the promise of former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe not to organize "a referendum during the presidential period, between September 2021 and August 2022", the rebellious leader denounced "the government's error of having overruled the opposition Kanaks. "
In a context of boycott by the separatists who argued of an "impossible fair campaign" because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the third and last referendum on the self-determination of New Caledonia, provided for by the Nouméa agreements of 1998, saw the victory of the "no" to independence by 96.49%, with a massive abstention (56.1%).
"I hope that we do not go from one brutality to another", continued Mr. Mélenchon, warning against a possible "upheaval of the current" New Caledonian "institutions after a poorly situated referendum and poorly accepted. "
The leader of La France insoumise affirmed that, contrary to the declarations of President Macron, the Nouméa accords would reach their "legal term" only when "new institutions have been developed."
"If the government thought to get rid of a problem to be more politically present in the cold war it wants to lead against China, it made a big mistake," added the rebellious deputy.
The Socialist Party considers him, in a press release, that "if the first two referendums were intended to be exemplary, this one leaves a taste of unfinished business which cannot be ignored".
And "the withdrawal" of the separatist parties "cannot give rise to any triumphalism, nor to any final reading of the results of the poll".
The PS asks the State to "find the ways of an equidistant and consensual approach to the Caledonian question", by associating in the discussions the parliamentary missions of the National Assembly and the Senate as well as the Caledonian civil society which demands "a real policy of reducing inequalities ".
This strategic archipelago of more than 200,000 inhabitants, located in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, provides France with a vast exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of some 1.5 million km2 and therefore a strategic location in the Indo-Pacific region, main stage of the new rivalry between China and the United States.
© 2021 AFP