A senior French Polynesian politician, Nuihau Laurey, says he will leave the ruling Tapura Huiraatira party amid a week-long public spat over the management of the Covid-19 outbreak.
Nuihau Laurey Photo: supplied FB
Mr Laurey, who is a French senator and French Polynesia's former finance minister, said he would remain in the territorial assembly but sit as an independent.
He is the second Tapura politician with a seat in the French legislature to become an independent in the assembly in less than six month.
Mr Laurey had urged the government to take out a loan in its own right in the order of $US600 million to deal with what he called a brutal, deep and systemic crisis.
The Tapura however rejected his idea and described him as a public moraliser riding a media wave.
In the assembly, Mr Laurey described Edouard Fritch as the worst president French Polynesia ever had, adding that in an exceptional situation there had to be a leader open to ideas.
He said instead there was someone in charge who was deaf to any suggestion.
Mr Fritch said the government had a rescue plan in place and dismissed advice of those who sit in Paris on behalf of French Polynesia while failing to support the government there.
The French Polynesia parliament building Photo: RNZ