The Caledonian Union (, UC) is a pro-independence and the oldest

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

. In the latest

legislative elections A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

of May 10, 2009, the party won around 11.65% of the popular vote, and 9 out of 54 seats in the Territorial Congress.

History

The Caledonian Union was born as a cross-community (multi-ethnic) autonomist party led by Maurice Lenormand, who was the island's sole representative in the

French National Assembly The National Assembly (french: link=no, italics=set, Assemblée nationale; ) is the lower house of the bicameral French Parliament under the Fifth Republic, the upper house being the Senate (). The National Assembly's legislators are known a ...

. There he sat with the

Popular Republican Movement The Popular Republican Movement (french: Mouvement Républicain Populaire, MRP) was a Christian-democratic political party in France during the Fourth Republic. Its base was the Catholic vote and its leaders included Georges Bidault, Robert Sc ...

, or MRP, and other

Christian democratic Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

parties in France. The party's first significant success was on February 8, 1953 with the election of 15 members of the Caledonian Union to the 25 seats General Council.Members of "Conseil General" from 1940 to 1957
, The Congress of New Caledonia (in French), 2004 However, the UC opposed to the arrival of

Gaullist Gaullism (french: link=no, Gaullisme) is a French political stance based on the thought and action of World War II French Resistance leader Charles de Gaulle, who would become the founding President of the Fifth French Republic. De Gaulle withd ...

centralism in France, which undid most of the autonomist reforms of the

French Fourth Republic The French Fourth Republic (french: Quatrième république française) was the Republicanism, republican government of France from 27 October 1946 to 4 October 1958, governed by the fourth republican constitution. It was in many ways a revival of ...

(the Defferre laws). The UC grew more and more radical, and started flirting with independence, which eventually led to an outflow of Caldoches into new loyalist parties, such as the

Rally for Caledonia in the Republic The Rally (french: Le Rassemblement; until 2004 Rally for Caledonia in the Republic, french: Rassemblement pour une Calédonie dans la République; from 2004 to 2014 Rally–UMP) is a conservative political party in New Caledonia, strongly suppo ...

. Combined with corruption scandals, this weakened the party considerably. In 1977 in

Bourail Bourail is a commune in the South Province of New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France in the Pacific Ocean. Geography Bourail is a rural town of Grande Terre, New Caledonia's main island. The municipality stretches between the mounta ...

, the UC adopted a nationalist platform, supported by

Jean-Marie Tjibaou Jean-Marie Tjibaou (January 30, 1936 – May 4, 1989) was a French politician in New Caledonia and leader of the Kanak independence movement. The son of a tribal chief, Tjibaou was ordained a Catholic priest but abandoned his religious vocation fo ...

(and the rare European nationalists, such as Maurice Lenormand and Pierre Declercq). In 1979, the UC joined with the

Party of Kanak Liberation The Party of Kanak Liberation (french: Parti de libération kanak, Palika) is a socialist pro-independence political party in New Caledonia. It is a component of the National Union for Independence, which in turn is one of the two components of ...

(FLNKS) and other parties to form the Nationalist Front, which became the

Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (french: Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) is a pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various politica ...

(FLNKS) in 1984. The UC was the largest faction in the FLNKS, led by Tjibaou. It was largely moderate, as opposed to the more radical Palika. Tjibaou was killed in 1989 by an extremist

Kanak The Kanak (French spelling until 1984: Canaque) are the indigenous Melanesian inhabitants of New Caledonia, an overseas collectivity of France in the southwest Pacific. According to the 2019 census, the Kanak make up 41.2% of New Caledonia' ...

nationalist. In 2001, Roch Wamytan, the moderate leader of the UC, lost an election to Pascal Naouna, a radical. The UC has since broken with Palika within the FLNKS, which has no unitary president and is very divided.

Charles Pidjot Charles 'Charly' Pidjot (17 July 1962 - 11 September 2012) was a pro-independence politician from New Caledonia who was a member of the Kanak people. He was born in the community of Conceptions in Le Mont-Dore (New-Caledonia) and was the presiden ...

, Roch Pidjot's nephew, replaced Naouna in 2007. He died in 2012 and was then replaced himself by

Daniel Goa Daniel Goa (born 1953) is a New Caledonian politician elected to head the Caledonian Union in 2012. He was a Petitioner on the Question of New Caledonia at the Fourth Committee on Special Political and Decolonization of the United Nations ...

. In the 2009 provincial elections, the party won 9 seats in the

Congress of New Caledonia The Congress of New Caledonia (french: Congrès de la Nouvelle-Calédonie), a "territorial congress" (''congrès territorial'' or ''congrès du territoire''), is the legislature of New Caledonia. It has 54 members who serve five-year terms, sel ...

and around 11.65% of the vote. However, in the South Province, the UC ran on a common slate with Palika and won one of the four seats won by that list. The UC controls the provincial presidency of the

Loyalty Islands The Loyalty Islands Province ( French ''Province des îles Loyauté'') is one of three administrative subdivisions of New Caledonia encompassing the Loyalty Island (french: Îles Loyauté) archipelago in the Pacific, which are located northeast of ...

Ideology

The UC favour the concept of independence-association similar to the

Marshall Islands The Marshall Islands ( mh, Ṃajeḷ), officially the Republic of the Marshall Islands ( mh, Aolepān Aorōkin Ṃajeḷ),'' () is an independent island country and microstate near the Equator in the Pacific Ocean, slightly west of the Internati ...

. However, the UC has taken a radical stance in favour of strict adherence to the terms of the

Nouméa Accord The Nouméa Accord of 1998 is a promise by the French Republic to grant increased political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, over a twenty-year transition period. It was signed 5 May 1998 by Lionel Jospin, and app ...

, no talks with the loyalists. For example, the UC boycotted the visit of

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

to the island in 2003.

Notes and references

{{Authority control 1953 establishments in New Caledonia Political parties in New Caledonia Secessionist organizations Separatism in France Melanesian socialism *Main Christian democratic parties in Oceania Socialist parties in New Caledonia