The separatists of New Caledonia have made their decision.

They asked their activists and sympathizers to "abstain" on Sunday during the second round of the presidential election, not wanting to decide between "the far right" and the outgoing president, whom they accuse of having maintained the referendum on the independence last December.

This abstention instruction was communicated on Wednesday in a short text signed by the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), a historic Kanak struggle movement, but also by the USTKE union, and its political branch, the Labor Party, and the Unitary dynamic south (DUS).

“Bogus referendum consultation”

"There is no hesitation about the dam against the far right. Nevertheless, voting for Emmanuel Macron means approving the bogus referendum consultation of December 12 that the outgoing president has stubbornly organized in defiance of the Kanak people", said in a press release the DUS, member of the support committee for Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The separatists had unsuccessfully asked the State to postpone the third and final independence referendum provided for in the 1998 Nouméa agreement until the end of 2022, due to the health crisis which, according to them, had not allowed to campaign.

The vote, which the separatists boycotted, was won hands down by the loyalists (96.5%) but the FLNKS refuses to recognize the result and has filed several administrative appeals.

"It's an internal election in France, this choice is up to the French people alone. We tell our activists not to vote," Daniel Goa, president of the Caledonian Union (UC-FLNKS) also declared on April 11. ).

During the first round of the presidential election in New Caledonia, Emmanuel Macron came out on top (40.51%), followed by Marine Le Pen (18.83%) and Jean-Luc Mélenchon (13.77%), against a background of record abstention (66.65%).

With AFP

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