New Caledonia elects Philippe Germain as president

Transcript

New Caledonia again has a president after the position had been left vacant for more than 100 days.

All this was due to disagreements within the dominant anti-independence camp, which could not agree on who should head the administration.

The pro-independence side found the absence of a proper government was inexcusable and decided to act.

Don Wiseman asked Walter Zweifel how things unfolded:

WALTER ZWEIFEL: The French High Commission suddenly called a meeting of the government, that is made up of 11 members, to elect a president. Eight of the 11 minister turned up for this meeting. It lasted 15 minutes after which Philippe Germain was elected the new president. Philippe Germain belongs to the so-called Caledonia Together Party, which is the biggest of the three anti-independence parties.  

DON WISEMAN: We had this impasse for months now. How did it come about, why?

WZ: It goes back to last year when the three anti-independence parties formed the government and when they formed the government, they had a power-sharing deal under which one party would get the leadership of the Congress, one party would get the presidency of the southern province and one party would get the presidency. Now there were disagreements within this anti-independence camp that led to the fall of the government. After Congress re-elected the same government, these parties could no longer agree on this power-sharing deal. We had Cynthia Ligeard, who was the president from June last year until December, who was a candidate again. She was trying to maintain her position, however the Caledonia Together Party said 'no' - it wanted to have the presidency and now it has managed to secure this position for Philippe Germain. And how did this happen? The pro-independence side, which is the other bloc within the administration, had stood outside this dispute for the last few weeks and months. It found it had gone on for too long and decided that one way or another there had to be a decision. Three members of the pro-independence  side came in voted, decided to give a vote to Philippe Germain and now we have a president again.

DW: And Mrs Ligeard is very unhappy about that?

WZ: Oh yes, she is upset that this has gone this way. She has been extremely outspoken against Caledonia Together in the past and when she lost or found out that she was not going to win, she described this outcome as a betrayal and accused the French state of complicity in this. The French state is in the context of New Caledonia often described as the Socialist state. We have to keep in mind that the anti-independence parties in New Caledonia are essentially on the right. So there is always this rivalry between the loyalists and the Socialists in France. Another key politician, Pierre Frogier, who is now a member of the Senate in France said this was possibly the worst outcome that it could have as the idea of collegiality has been lost, making this a little bracket in history when there was collegiality.

DW: So how long is it going to last?

WZ: It is difficult to say where we are going to go from here. The election was held last year for a five-year term. The agreement that they had was supposed to last for five years and lasted for six months. We have to keep in mind that under the Noumea Accord, there is always the possibility of one party pulling out of the collegial government. If that happens, then the entire government falls. That's what we had in December.  And it took now, obviously, nearly four months to get back to a properly functioning administration.