Significant victories for pro-France parties in French Polynesia, New Caledonia municipal elections

French Polynesia and New Caledonia have maintained support for pro-France parties in the key cities of Nouméa and Papeete after the second round of the French municipal elections over the weekend. In New Caledonia's capital Nouméa, after narrowly missing a straight election at the first round of votes last week, incumbent pro-France Lady Mayor Sonia Lagarde easily won at the second round of votes with a staggering 61.99 percent of the votes. "This is the best score we ever made," Lagarde told local media. "It's also an acknowledgement of the work we did". A similar pro-France trend also emerged in the greater Nouméa area, comprising the three suburban municipalities of Dumbéa, Mont-Dore and Païta. Nouméa and its suburban belt represent almost 65 percent of New Caledonia's whole population. They were also the townships that suffered most from the civil unrest that broke out in New Caledonia in May 2024. In Dumbéa, newcomer Cynthia Jan (who is the sister of prominent pro-France leader Nicolas Metzdorf), won by securing 45.33 percent of the votes. In Mont-Dore, pro-France Nina Julié received 47.46 percent of the votes. And in Païta, Antoine Romain secured 43.17 percent of the votes. Outside Nouméa's suburban areas, however, the pro-France parties have sometimes suffered setbacks. This appeared in such townships as the nickel mining town of Kouaoua, on New Caledonia's eastern coast of the main island (Grande Terre), where incumbent Lord Mayor (and since January 2025 the President of New Caledonia's government) pro-France Kanak leader Alcide Ponga was narrowly defeated. In the pro-independence camp, some cities were also lost due to divisions between member parties of the former version of pro-independence FLNKS umbrella (Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front), which split in 2024 as a result of differences between Union Calédonienne and moderate pro-independence parties such as PALIKA (Kanak Liberation Party) and UPM (Union Progressiste en Mélanésie). Since the split was made official, PALIKA and UPM were running under the flag of "UNI" (Union Nationale pour l'Indépendance) and the radical version of FLNKS, dominated by Union Calédonienne, was running under the UC-FLNKS banner. But the divisions have almost cost the pro-independence camp the symbolic town of Poindimié, which has been ruled by charismatic leader Paul Néaoutyine since 1989. Néaoutyine eventually managed to secure the first seat on Sunday 22 March 2026 (35.7 percent of votes), slightly ahead of local butcher Patrick Watanabe (32.1 percent). As in most municipalities, the newly-elected municipal council is expected to hold its inaugural meeting later this week to elect the new Mayor. As a result of these elections, the municipal council is made up of half of the councillors from the winning party list. The rest if made up of a proportional representation of any other party that secured at least 5 percent of the votes. The participation rate was high (58.9 percent) at this year's poll in New Caledonia. It also marked the emergence of "independent" lists, not necessarily affiliated to a political party, which sometimes fared well in the race. In Koné, 48-year-old Mike Samadi was one of these surprise candidates who based his campaign on local bread and butter issues, openly saying the population did not care about the wider political stakes. He made a score of 33.7 percent of the votes, defeating incumbent Thierry Gowecee (UC-FLNKS) (26.5 percent) and UNI's Joseph Goromido (30.5 percent). "There was no place for politics and I intend this to remain this way", he told public broadcaster NC la 1ère. "The reality is to stay close to the population, it's much healthier than this politician world". He said his priorities were first to re-launch Koné economic attractiveness and to work for the younger generations. Koné had been a long-time pro-independence stronghold. In the Western coastal city of Bourail, incumbent mayor Patrick Robelin secured his re-election (44.6 percent) for another six years, mainly thanks to the support of pro-independence parties, in addition to his pro-France list. In those municipal polls, UC-FLNKS has made it clear it was running in order to bring together votes opposed to a "Bougival-Elysée-Oudinot" agreement. The agreement was discussed and signed in July 2025 and later in January 2026, but strongly opposed by the FLNKS. The resulting text is currently undergoing French Parliament approval process and a possible Constitutional amendment to make New Caledonia a "State" vis-à-vis France, with a correlated New Caledonian "nationality", amongst other points. But still along the lines of pro or anti Bougival logic, the "Les Loyalistes" pro-France group reacted on Monday 23 March 2026 to claim claim a de facto victory, saying the municipal poll results marked "a historic rupture in New Caledonia's political history". Based on the results in the greater Nouméa area, the pro-France radical party claimed "Voters have massively plebiscited the pro-Bougival camp". The statement comes as parliamentary debates are scheduled to resume in Paris, in the French National Assembly (Lower House) later this month, in relation to the Bougival project with a view of making the text a constitutional amendment on New Caledonia's political future. But the debates are likely to be rocky, as several blocks of the French National Assembly (namely the left-wing Socialist party and the far-left La France Insoumise, as well as far-right Rassemblement National) have already announced they would vote against the project and, instead, call for local provincial elections to be held sooner (as early as June 2026) rather than later (at the end of this year). Reacting to the polls results on social media, FLNKS said those results needed to be "appreciated with much humility and analysed commune by commune", "taking into account the alliances put in place (by adverse parties) to block FLNKS". "FLNKS will remain mobilised against the (Constitutional Bill regarding New Caledonia, Bougival and its Elysée-Oudinot complement), the pro-independence party added. In French Polynesia, in this battle for 22 municipalities, one of the most expected result was for the capital Papeete, where Rémy Brillant (pro-France, or pro autonomy, according to the local term) secured 43.4 percent of the votes. He was leading a list called Papeete Na Mua Roa. His most direct opponent, Tematai Le Gayic, pro-independence, received 23.3 percent. Brillant has been a long-time associate of outgoing Lord Mayor Michel Buillard, 75 years old, who has been running the capital's affairs since June 1995. Some key political figures were re-elected on 15 March 2026 with an absolute majority of over fifty percent of the votes. This was the case of pro-autonomy Tapura Huiraatira party leader and former President Edouard Fritch (74 years old) in Pirae (which he rules since 2014) and pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party President Oscar Temaru (81 years old) in his stronghold of Faa'a of which he has been the Lord Mayor since 1983, uninterrupted. But at the first round also, Tavini party figure and Speaker of the Territorial Assembly Antony Géros lost to Tapura's woman leader Tepuaraurii Teriitahi (52.5 percent).