French Senator François-Noël Buffet has been appointed Minister for Overseas. Photo: Sénat
François Noël Buffet is France's new overseas minister, appointed as part of the new government announced on Saturday evening (Paris time) by the Presidency's secretary-general Alexis Kohler.
In this capacity, the 61-year-old will have to deal with the situation in New Caledonia, which has been gripped by political unrest for over four months, causing 13 deaths (including 11 civilians and two French gendarmes).
Buffet's position has been announced as "minister responsible to the Prime Minister, in charge of Overseas".
The wording chosen to appoint Buffet (as part of a team of no less than 38 ministers) implies that unlike his direct predecessors, who were all "delegate" ministers for Overseas under the French minister of Home Affairs, the new portfolio is now back to a full ministerial position, but directly under the French Prime Minister's office.
Since 2020, Buffet has been the President of the French Senates' law committee.
In this report, the Senators were recommending that stalled political dialogue among New Caledonian parties should resume on an urgent basis, and that the French State should come up with an acceptable method of negotiations and should also "restore confidence" in talks on New Caledonia's long-term political future.
The report also recommended that the French government should come back to an "impartial" position, in the midst of a more-than-ever polarised and radicalised political situation in New Caledonia.
In March 2024, the French Senate endorsed a controversial Constitutional amendment that effectively aimed at changing the conditions of voter eligibility at local provincial elections in New Caledonia, with a required minimum of uninterrupted ten years of residency; instead of a "frozen" electoral roll restricted to people born or having resided in the French Pacific archipelago before 1998.
The bill was heavily criticised by pro-independence parties who said this effectively diluted the indigenous Kanak votes, and therefore reduced their political voice on the local level.
During debates in the Senate in March, Buffet was perceived as in favour of giving more time to New Caledonia's political players in order to find what could be a successor agreement to the 1998 autonomy Nouméa Accord, which is now regarded as reaching the end of its 26-year-old life.
In May 2024, the other French House of Parliament (the National Assembly), as part of the Constitutional amendment process, also endorsed the same text.
Hours later, what was until then a wave of peaceful pro-independence parties demonstrations degenerated into violent riots, arson and confrontation with police and gendarmes.
Four months later, the current estimate of material damages is at around €2.2 billion, over 800 businesses destroyed by arson and over 20,000 people who lost their jobs.
Since the French National Assembly's dissolution in June and the subsequent snap general election, the Constitutional bill on New Caledonia's electoral roll has been left in limbo, with the French President saying it was "suspended" but not "withdrawn".
As part of the freshly-announced French government, under prime minister Michel Barnier, other ministries which had dealings with the French overseas, especially in the Pacific, are the Home Affairs ministry, formerly headed by Gérald Darmanin.
The Home Affairs portfolio has been given to Bruno Retailleau (Les Républicains party), who replaces Darmanin.
Former overseas minister Sébastien Lecornu remains Defence Minister.