Alcide Ponga, president of the anti-independence party Rassemblement-Les Républicains, has been elected as the new President of New Caledonia.
Ponga replaces outgoing President Louis Mapou of the Parti de Libération Kanak (Palika). Mapou’s government was brought down on Christmas Eve, after the resignation of government minister Jérémie Katidjo-Monnier of the Calédonie ensemble party, which then refused to nominate a replacement.
Alcide Ponga takes office at a difficult time, following six months of conflict in New Caledonia after 13 May 2024, which left 14 dead, hundreds of businesses shuttered, and the economy and livelihoods under stress. New Caledonian politicians must also now agree when and how to proceed with negotiations on a new political statute to replace the Noumea accord – the 1998 framework agreement that has governed New Caledonia for more than a quarter of a century.
Acknowledging his electoral victory on Wednesday afternoon, Ponga said: “It is an immense responsibility given what has happened recently. What Caledonians are waiting for today is that we can work together and give them a signal of hope. We don’t have much time, but all we can do is win to turn the page.”
However, the new government’s task is complicated by political tensions within the anti-independence bloc, as well as between the members of the independence coalition Front de Liberation Nationale Kanak et Socialiste (FLNKS).
Ponga’s election as President comes amidst attempts to revitalise Rassemblement, but his party is currently in an alliance with three more conservative anti-independence parties. In the Congress of New Caledonia, the Loyalist bloc includes three formations: Les Républicains Calédoniennes (LRC) led by Sonia Backès; Générations NC, led by Nicolas Metzdorf; and the Mouvement populaire calédonien (MPC), a breakaway from Rassemblement led by Gil Brial.
All are fiercely anti-independence and want New Caledonia to remain within the French Republic. They also have policy difference with other anti-independence groups in the Congress such as the Calédonie ensemble party (CE), led by Philippe Gomès, and the Wallisian party Eveil océanien (EO), under Milakulo Tukumuli.
New government
On Tuesday 6 January, the Congress of New Caledonia elected the new members of the Government, a multi-party executive that includes both supporters and opponents of independence.
For the vote, the anti-independence Loyalist bloc forged a temporary alliance with Ponga’s Rassemblement-Les Républicains. Calédonie ensemble also formed a joint list of candidates with Eveil océanien. There were also two other lists from the pro-independence movement, from the UC-FLNKS and Nationalists parliamentary group and the Union nationale pour l’Indépendance (UNI).
The vote of the 54 Congress members confirmed the 11 members of the government, with the Loyalists/Rassemblement winning four seats (Alcide Ponga, Isabelle Champmoreau, Christopher Gygès and Thierry Santa); the CE/EO list winning two (Philippe Dunoyer and Pétélo Sao); UC-FLNKS with three (Gilbert Tyuienon, Mickaël Forrest, and Samuel Hnepeune); and UNI two (Adolphe Digoué and Claude Gambey).
Under the Noumea Accord, the new government members are then responsible for choosing a new President and Vice President from amongst their ranks. However, tensions soon bubbled over between the Loyalists and Calédonie ensemble. Just hours after being elected to the Government, CE’s Philippe Dunoyer resigned, angered that Rassemblement and the Loyalists would not offer him the portfolio of finance and economy.
In a statement, Dunoyer justified his resignation: “My objective was to allow the creation of a [anti-independence] majority, notably with the Loyalists, Rassemblement and Eveil océanien, regardless of our differences, to govern the country as effectively as possible in these times of unprecedented economic and social crisis.”
Dunoyer and Calédonie ensemble had proposed a program of action for the new government, including economic reforms, a new relationship with the French government in Paris, and major cuts to government spending and the size of the public service.
After resigning, however, Dunoyer said: “Despite several discussion sessions with representatives of the Loyalists and Rassemblement, it was impossible to reach a conclusion on all these subjects. Neither on the governance contract, nor on the portfolio that I requested…. Lacking agreement on fundamental principles that in my opinion should guide the government’s action in the face of current emergencies, I have decided to renounce my seat in the government.”
Ironically his replacement in the 18th Government is CE’s Jérémie Katidjo-Monnier, the very man whose resignation brought down former President Mapou and the 17th Government!
After Tuesday’s musical chairs, the government members met again on Wednesday afternoon. With support from other anti-independence politicians, Ponga defeated the Union Calédonienne candidate Samuel Hnepeune by 6-3 votes. Hnepeune, a leading Kanak businessman and former head of the domestic airline Air Calédonie, won the three votes of his UC-FLNKS parliamentary group. However, the two members of the UNI group abstained from the vote, reflecting ongoing tensions between UC and Palika, the two largest members of the FLNKS coalition.
Loyalty to France
While most indigenous Kanak support pro-independence parties, the Ponga family has long supported the pro-French Rassemblement pour la Calédonie dans la Republique (RPCR), now re-branded as Rassemblement-Les Républicains.
As an RPCR supporter, Alcide’s uncle Maurice Ponga served as a minister in the first two governments established after the 1998 Noumea Accord, where anti-independence politicians held a majority in the multi-party executive. After serving in Noumea between 1999-2009, Maurice Ponga was then elected as a Member of the European Parliament for 2009-19.
Since 2014, following his uncle, Alcide Ponga has served as mayor of Kouaoua, a town in the Northern Province of New Caledonia. He has worked as a special advisor to the management of Koniambo Nickel SAS, the joint venture that managed the Koniambo nickel smelter in the Northern Province, until it ceased production last year during the 2024 crisis, after years of financial losses.
In April 2024, Alcide Ponga replaced Thierry Santa as president of the Rassemblement party.
Santa, who served as President of the Government of New Caledonia in 2019-21, has now returned to office as a member of the Ponga government.
In June 2024, Ponga was chosen as the Loyalist-Rassemblement candidate for the 2024 elections to the French National Assembly in Paris, in the second constituency of New Caledonia (which covers the rural north of the main island Grande Terre). However, he was soundly beaten by independence candidate Emmanuel Tjibaou in the second-round of voting, with the pro-independence Kanak leader winning 57.4% to 42.5% on 7 July 2024.
Last month, Islands Business named Tjibaou, aged 48, as its “Pacific person of the year”, noting that his “new prominence symbolises the rise of a new generation of political leadership not only in New Caledonia, but also across Melanesia and the wider Pacific.”
Ponga, aged 49, also represents this new generation of politicians that are entering office in New Caledonia.
In coming days, his government must allocate portfolios amongst its members and also elect a Vice President. Political groups should then begin talks in late January on a post-Noumea Accord political statute, to meet a 31 March deadline set by the French State.
However, there’s a long way to go before then. With elections scheduled in November 2025 for New Caledonia’s three provincial assemblies and national Congress, tensions between government members will likely continue in coming weeks, despite the call from New Caledonian citizens for urgent action on post-conflict economic recovery.