![]() ![]() "We have decided in our souls and consciences to remain French," Sonia Backes, a senior pro-France figure, told supporters on Sunday evening. The wealthier white community turned out in large numbers. The result could exacerbate long-standing ethnic tensions, with the poorer Indigenous Kanak community who generally favour independence staying away from polling booths on Sunday. Pro-independence campaigners boycotted the vote, saying they wanted it postponed to September because "a fair campaign" was impossible with high coronavirus infection numbers. ![]() Having rejected independence in 2018 and then again last year, inhabitants were called on Sunday to answer one last time whether they wanted New Caledonia "to accede to full sovereignty and become independent". Mr Macron noted "the high abstention rates" but said France could be "proud" of a more than 30-year process designed to settle the islands' status under which residents were asked in three separate referendums if they wished to break away. Why New Caledonia's third and final independence referendum is mired in controversy ![]()
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