Paris, Oct 1, 2024 (AFP)
French Prime Minister Michel Barnier on Tuesday said that local elections in the riot-hit Pacific territory of New Caledonia had been postponed until the end of 2025.
Laying out his policy priorities in a speech to parliament, the new prime minister also said that the government was abandoning a planned electoral reform that triggered deadly riots in the territory in mid-May.
Barnier said the reform plan would not be submitted for ratification by a joint session of parliament.
Violence broke out in mid-May over Paris's plan for voting reforms that indigenous Kanak people fear would leave them in a permanent minority, crushing their chances of winning independence.
Barnier also said that a mission led by the presidents of the French parliament's lower and upper houses, would be dispatched to New Caledonia "soon".
"A new period must now begin, devoted to the economic and social reconstruction of New Caledonia," he said.
In violence not seen since the near-civil war of the 1980s, 13 people -- including two police officers -- were killed and hundreds received injuries.
France sent thousands of troops and police to the archipelago, which is home to around 270,000 people and located nearly 17,000 kilometres (10,600 miles) from Paris.
In June, President Emmanuel Macron had suspended the reform.

Sumber : AFP