Socialist parliamentarians have announced they will not support the constitutional bill to create a 'State of New Caledonia within the national ensemble.' This stance blocks the government's reform, which aims to implement the Bougival agreement despite FLNKS opposition. The text, already rejected by the extremes, cannot achieve the required qualified majority.
The constitutional bill, examined in the Senate's laws commission on February 18, 2026, and then in session on February 24, aims to constitutionalize the Bougival agreement of July 2025, supplemented by the Elysée-Oudinot agreement of January 2026. According to the socialist signatories, this text is 'in its current state heavy with threats and dangers,' while the territory faces an unprecedented economic and social crisis.
In a tribune published in Le Monde on February 17, 2026, Olivier Faure, first secretary of the Parti socialiste (PS), Boris Vallaud, deputy from Landes and president of the socialist group in the National Assembly, Arthur Delaporte, deputy from Calvados and spokesperson, as well as senators Patrick Kanner (Nord), Corinne Narassiguin (Seine-Saint-Denis), Rachid Temal (Val-d'Oise), and Viviane Artigalas (Hautes-Pyrénées), explain their refusal. They highlight that the project invites the constituent to vote 'blindly,' without visibility on the content of the organic law that would implement it.
The text involves a fourth postponement of provincial elections, bypassing a Constitutional Council decision from September 2025. Parliament had urged in November 2025 to seek a consensual agreement including the Front de libération nationale kanak et socialiste (FLNKS), but the January 2026 discussions closed that door. The socialists recall that 'there is no durable solution ensuring peace, stability, and development in New Caledonia without a consensual and inclusive agreement,' despite the empty-chair policy of the Union calédonienne (UC)-FLNKS.
Its parliamentary path was already hazardous, rejected at the extremes of the hemicycle. Without socialist support, the pivotal force, the reform will not receive the required 60% in the Assembly, nor the 3/5 majority at the Versailles Congress scheduled for April 13, 2026. The socialists invoke the decolonization legacy of Michel Rocard and Lionel Jospin to justify their duty to pursue a stable and pacified work.
