Pacific / French Polynesia

Senate approves reworded autonomy statute for French Polynesia

13:29 pm on 23 May 2019

The French Senate has approved the reworded autonomy statute for French Polynesia.

Photo: 123RF

Earlier this month a joint commission of the French National Assembly and the Senate agreed that the territory's contribution to France's plan to become a nuclear power was involuntary.

The original text raising the French Polynesian contribution had been cleared by the Senate but in April the Assembly suggested that its wording was insulting.

The Assembly then changed it to say that French Polynesia was made to contribute to the weapons tests.

The Senate has approved the revised text which will now go to the French National Assembly.

Two months ago, the French Polynesian president Edouard Fritch said the main point to revise the statute was to calm domestic and international opinion about the weapons test legacy.

France carried out 193 tests in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996.