New Caledonia is a sui generis collectivity of overseas France in the southwest Pacific Ocean, south of Vanuatu, about 1,210 km (750 mi) east of Australia, and 17,000 km (11,000 mi) from Metropolitan France. The archipelago, part of the Melanesia subregion, includes the main island of Grande Terre, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, the Belep archipelago, the Isle of Pines, and a few remote islets. The Chesterfield Islands are in the Coral Sea. French people, especially locals, call Grande Terre "Le Caillou". It is one of the European Union’s Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs), but is not part of the European Union.
New Caledonia is a French sui generis collectivity with a system of government based on parliamentarism and representative democracy. The President of the Government is the head of government, and there is a multi-party system, with Executive power being exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the executive and the Congress of New Caledonia. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Future Together was a center-right political party in New Caledonia supporting the maintenance of political and administrative ties with France.
The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front is a pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various political parties. Its supporters are mostly from the Kanak indigenous population but also include supporters from other ethnic communities.
The Nouméa Accord of 1998 is a promise by the French Republic to grant increased political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, over a twenty-year transition period. It was signed 5 May 1998 by Lionel Jospin, and approved in a referendum in New Caledonia on 8 November, with 72% voting in favour. Under the accord, two more referendum votes, on whether to remain a special collectivity of France or become an independent state, have been held. One was held in 2018, and the second was held in 2020. In both votes a majority chose to remain French. The Nouméa Accord permitted a final referendum to be held, voted for by the Congress of New Caledonia. It was held December 2021 and widely rejected independence amid boycott by the independence movement.
The Kanaks are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. Kanak peoples traditionally speak diverse Austronesian languages, that belong to the New Caledonian branch of Oceanic. According to the 2019 census, the Kanaks make up 41.2% of New Caledonia's total population — corresponding to around 112,000 people.
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 November 2018. Voters were given the choice of remaining part of France or becoming an independent country.
The 2017 Corsican territorial elections were held on 3 and 10 December 2017 to elect 63 members of the Corsican Assembly, who in turn determined the composition of the Executive Council of Corsica. The election was held only two years after the 2015 territorial elections, and were called as a result of the planned creation of a single collectivity within Corsica resulting from the mergers of two departments, and the existing territorial collectivity of Corsica.
Cynthia Ligeard is a New Caledonian anti-independence politician. She was the second woman to serve as President of the Government of New Caledonia, a position she held from 5 June 2014 until 1 April 2015..
Legislative elections were held in New Caledonia on 8 February 1953.
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 October 2020. The poll was the second to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following a similar referendum in 2018.
Sonia Backès is a French politician in New Caledonia. She is the current leader of the Caledonian Republicans party and the President of the Provincial Assembly of South Province since May 17, 2019.
Legislative elections were held in New Caledonia on 10 September 1972. They had originally been scheduled for July, but were postponed by the French government. Anti-autonomist parties won 18 of the 35 seats, with the previously dominant Caledonian Union reduced from the 22 seats it won in 1967 to only 12.
Legislative elections were held in New Caledonia on 11 September 1977. Anti-autonomy parties won 19 of the 35 seats.
The COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed to have reached the French overseas collectivity of New Caledonia on 18 March 2020. All cases are on the main island of Grand Terre and are related to travel abroad. On 7 May, all cases had recovered.
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia, a French territory in the South Pacific, on 12 December 2021. The vote was the third and final to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following votes in 2018 and 2020, in which independence was rejected by 57% and 53% respectively.
Générations NC (GNC) is a political party in New Caledonia. It is led by Nicolas Metzdorf who is also the party's only Member of Parliament.
Caroline Machoro-Reignier is a Kanak politician in New Caledonia. A member of the pro-independence Caledonian Union, she led the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front alliance in the Congress of New Caledonia from 2011 to 2014. In 1988, she was one of the signatories of the Matignon Agreements between New Caledonian loyalists and separatists.
Caledonian People's Movement is a conservative and anti-separatist political party in New Caledonia founded in 2013 by Gaël Yanno, a former President of the Congress of New Caledonia and MP in the National Assembly of France representing the New Caledonia constituency.
Oceanian Awakening is a political party in New Caledonia founded in March 2019.
