Roch Wamytan Photo: XOSE BOUZAS/AFP
Analysis - There's been a major shift at New Caledonia's Congress, where its President for the past five years, pro-independence Roch Wamytan, has been replaced as a result of a surprise vote.
In a first in New Caledonia's short Congress history (it was set up in 1999 as part of the implementation of the autonomy Nouméa Accord), the new Chair of the local Parliament is now a woman.
Veylma Falaeo, 42, is from the small Eveil Océanien (Oceania Awakening) party which, since it was formed in 2019, has been dubbed the "party of kingmakers".
Eveil Océanien (EO) only has three members in the Congress.
But pro-independence parties at the Congress had long been relying on the small group's three seats to gain a majority at the Congress.
The first warning sign came on Wednesday, when Eveil Océanien's Vaima Muliava resigned from the local government, so as to be allowed to sit again at the Congress and take part in the vote, replacing an EO member more in favour of the pro-independence side and therefore bringing back EO's three members closer to the pro-France side.
Whereas in the past, EO had allowed the pro-independence side to be "kings" at the Congress, it looked like this time, EO's candidate, Veylma Falaeo, would receive the support of the loyalist, anti-independence group, to shift the paper-thin majority in their favour.
Veylma Falaéo is the new President of New Caledonia’s Congress, the first woman to hold this position. Photo: RRB
Only one vote made the difference
The scenario became real at the second round of voting on Thursday when the pro-France parties, Les Loyalistes, Rassemblement-LR and Calédonie Ensemble decided to drop their two candidates to the Chair and vote for EO's candidate, bringing the total of votes to 28 to support Falaeo.
Wamytan received 26 votes from the pro-independence camp.
If one vote had changed camp, there would have been a 27-27 tie and in that case, Wamytan would have remained Congress President because he was the oldest candidate (71).
Even the new President admitted later to local media that her election came as a surprise and that she had only a few minutes to write a maiden speech to be delivered minutes after her surprise election.
She told Congress that this was a recognition of the crucial role played by Eveil Océanien (a party set up in 2019 with an electoral base dominated by the important community from neighbouring Wallis and Futuna islands) in promoting a "middle way", neither pro-independence, nor pro-French, against the block-to-block logics.
However, on the pro-France side, most leaders and MPs cited their "responsibility" and "duty" to oust Wamytan.
In a joint release later on Thursday, the Loyalists, Rassemblement and Calédonie Ensemble parties wrote of the "joy" to "see the end of Roch Wamytan's mandate as President of the Congress of New Caledonia".
The new bureau of New Caledonia’s Congres including its newly-elected President Veylma Falaéo. Photo: RRB
Wamytan clearly targeted
The same document read that, in their view, his Presidency had "reached a point of no return" and (Wamytan) could no longer preside (the Congress) which is supposed to represent all of New Caledonians".
"Over the past year, New Caledonia's Congress has seen unacceptable behaviour from the Congress President", the pro-French parties explained.
Rassemblement President Virginie Ruffenach cited the recent signing, in April 2024, of a Memorandum of Agreement between New Caledonia's Congress and its counterpart in Azerbaijan.
The agreement, signed at the time by Congress pro-independence (and Union Calédonienne) member Omayra Naisseline on behalf of Wamytan, at the time caused an uproar from members of other parties, who said they had never been consulted on the document.
The agreement was also signed while on the desk, the flag supposed to represent New Caledonia's Congress was replaced by a FLNKS flag.
As other contributing factors, the loyalist alliance also mentioned the close relationship between Union Calédonienne (UC, one of the more radical components of the FLNKS pro-independence platform) and the controversial CCAT (Field Actions Coordinating Cell).
The CCAT was set up in October 2023 by UC and later played a major role in the protest movement that led to the deadly riots that erupted on May 12, 2024, causing eleven dead, at least twenty thousand homeless and total estimated damage to the tune of some 2.2 billion Euros).
The joint release also denounced what is described as Wamytan's "guilty silence in the face of the ongoing violence since 13 May".
"So we voted for Mrs Falaeo because we believe we can work together, despite our differences", Calédonie Ensemble member Philippe Dunoyer told local media after the cliff-hanger vote.
Vaimua Muliava has resigned from New Caledonia’s government on 28 August 2024. Photo: RRB
'Vote of hope'
"It is also a vote of hope so that new political dynamics can emerge", he said, hailing such a bipartisan alliance.
Caucus leaders Jean-Pierre Djaïwé [Union Nationale pour l'Indépendance (UNI)-FLNKS] and Pierre-Chanel Tutugoro [Union Calédonienne-FLNKS] acknowledged their camp's defeat.
They also pointed out there had been previous signals showing this opposing alliance was in the making (like Mr Muliava's resignation from the government the day before the vote) and that, in the end, it was a victory for democracy.
"We are not in a position to face this crisis on our own, we need the (French) State (...) Whether the Congress President is pro-independence or anti-independence, the highest priority is our country's catastrophic situation." Djaïwé told media after the vote.
Wamytan, after the vote that unseated him, left the Congress and abstained from making any statement.
The change of Congress President also comes at a critical as the pro-independence platform FLNKS is supposed to hold a crucial meeting at the weekend (31 August-1 September) during which UC has already announced its intention to have the CCAT included in the umbrella organisation and that its leader Christian Théin (currently held in prison in Mulhouse, France, pending his trial for alleged charges of criminal conspiracy) should become FLNKS's President.
Two of FLNKS's pro-independence member parties, moderates PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie), have on Wednesday announced by way of communiqués that they would not take part in the weekend meeting.
New Caledonia's Congress members August 2024. Photo: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie