French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday lifted the state of emergency for the distant Pacific island territory of New Caledonia in an effort to allow political dialogue to continue following weeks of massive unrest and arson that left at least seven people dead, the Associated Press reports.
New Caledonia’s top French official, High Commissioner Louis Le Franc, said Monday that a nightly curfew, bans on sales of booze and public gatherings, and security patrols will remain in effect, but movement of elements of the Kanak nationalists and other pro-independence factions will be permitted. The shitshow, just the latest in a long history of political unrest in the distant outpost that sits about 900 miles northeast of Australia, stemmed from the approval of a new local voting law that allows any French citizen to vote in local elections if they’ve resided in the archipelago for 10 years – a change widely seen as aimed at further diluting the political power of the indigenous Kanaks amid the Metropolitan French government encouraging whites to relocate to New Caledonia.