The Movement for Diversity (french: Mouvement de la diversité, LMD) is a right-wing

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 ideological or p ...

in New Caledonia, strongly supportive of the French status of the region; it is close to the French

Union for a Popular Movement The Union for a Popular Movement (french: link=no, Union pour un mouvement populaire, ; UMP, ) was a centre-right List of political parties in France, political party in France that was one of the two major party, major contemporary political pa ...

History

Jacques Lafleur Jacques Lafleur (20 November 1932 – 4 December 2010) was a French politician born in Nouméa, New Caledonia, France. Lafleur was a leader of one of the two anti-independence parties in New Caledonia, the RPCR (Rally for Caledonia in the Repub ...

, the former leader of the major loyalist

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 ...

(RPCR) left the RPCR in 2006 to found the

Rally for Caledonia The Rally for Caledonia (french: link=no, Rassemblement pour la Calédonie, RPC) was a Gaullist political party in New Caledonia, strongly supportive of the French status of the region; it is close to the French Union for a Popular Movement. H ...

(RPC). The island's sole Senator, the anti-independence

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' ...

Simon Loueckhote Simon Loueckhote (born 7 May 1957) is a French politician and a former member of the Senate of France, representing the island of New Caledonia. He is a member of the Union for a Popular Movement. He served as President of the Congress of New ...

joined the RPC in 2006, but in 2008, he left the party following a series of electoral defeats to form the Movement for Diversity, the LMD. Loueckhote is strongly opposed to New Caledonia's independence from France. Loueckhote is a Kanak. In the 2009 election, the LMD allied with the centrist

Future Together Future Together (french: l'Avenir Ensemble, ) was a center-right political party in New Caledonia supporting the maintenance of political and administrative ties with France. The name ''l'Avenir Ensemble'' reflects the party's desire to unite N ...

list in the South Province, which won 16.33% in the province and two members of the LMD were elected, including Loueckhote. As a result, Loueckhote was eligible to sit 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, s ...

. In the

Loyalty Islands Province 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 ...

, the LMD ran independently and won only 3.6%, below the 5% threshold for seats. Political parties in New Caledonia {{oceania-party-stub