Three months after his judicial control was lifted in Paris, Christian Tein, FLNKS president, arrived in New Caledonia on December 4. This Kanak figure deeply divides the archipelago, still scarred by the 2024 riots. His return raises security concerns and hostile reactions.
Christian Tein, independentist leader and president of the Front de libération nationale kanak et socialiste (FLNKS), landed at Nouméa-La Tontouta airport on Thursday, December 4, at 4 p.m. local time, or 6 a.m. in Paris. Without making a statement, he headed to Saint-Louis, his residential area in greater Nouméa.
His judicial control, imposed after his June 2024 arrest for his alleged role in the May riots of that year, was lifted in September. Tein remains under examination for organized armed theft, organized destruction, and criminal association in preparation for crimes and offenses. Incarcerated in Mulhouse, he was appointed FLNKS president before being transferred to mainland France with six other militants on a chartered flight.
The riots, sparked a year and a half earlier by a controversial electoral reform, resulted in 14 deaths and over 2 billion euros in damage. Supporters view Tein as a political prisoner; opponents label him a violence instigator, even a « terrorist ». An online petition against his return has exceeded 13,000 signatures.
Henri Juni, a member of the FLNKS political bureau, told AFP: « We fear for his safety », highlighting racist messages on social media, some urging Tein to « keep eyes in the back of his head ». Désiré Tein, at the airport, welcomed his brother's return: « I am happy for my brother, who spent a year in prison 17,000 kilometers from home, though he had never set foot in mainland France ». He requested protection from the high commission, receiving no reply.
Tein will make his first speech as president at an extraordinary FLNKS congress the following Saturday, signaling his political comeback in a divided archipelago.