Why does France still maintain all of thee colonies?

It can’t be profitable.

Is it something to do with their sense of national identity? Do they still want to civilize the savages, to prove some ideological point?

Or is it just inertia?

Reuters:

Pro-independence protesters burned police vehicles and blocked roads in New Caledonia on Monday, authorities in the French Pacific territory said, as anger erupted over the extradition to France of jailed protest leader Christian Tein.

France’s High Commission in Noumea said in a statement that protesters had also set fire to the town hall in the Koumac commune, as well as destroyed areas in Paita.

Christian Tein is one of the main independence leaders on the island

The Dumbea municipal council said a firefighting vehicle was attacked, possibly by gunshots, and some schools were forced to close due to the protests, which began in May after France voted to approve reforms to allow thousands more French residents who have lived in the territory for 10 years to vote.

Indigenous Kanaks fear this reform will dilute their vote and make it harder for any future referendum on independence to pass, while Paris says the measure is needed to improve democracy.

Daniel Goa, president of Caledonian Union, the biggest pro-independence political party, said in a statement he was “astonished” at the deportation of Tein and six other party officials on Saturday night.

“All they have done has been to organise more peaceful demonstrations,” he said. He denied the prosecutor’s allegations that Tein and the others were sponsors of violence.

Police had arrested Tein, who leads an offshoot of Caledonian Union called Field Action Coordination Cell (CCAT) last week.

CCAT have set up barricades that have disrupted traffic for weeks, and Tein had met French President Emmanuel Macron during a visit to Noumea last month aimed at resolving the political impasse.

If I were the French, I’d probably be trying to get out of the colonialism game.

If you’re not willing to get really brutal, it just doesn’t work anymore.

The French empire appears to be fully collapsing.

It was gay and retarded and I don’t think anyone is going to miss it.

Le Monde:

Pro-independence activists in riot-hit New Caledonia refused Monday, May 20, to abandon roadblocks that have paralyzed much of the Pacific archipelago and halted commercial air traffic, defying a major security operation by French forces. France has sent 1,000 armed police, troops, and national security reinforcements to its overseas territory, a popular holiday destination rocked by seven nights of violence that have left six dead and hundreds injured.

New Caledonia, with a population of about 270,000, has been convulsed since May 13 by the unrest, sparked by French plans to impose new rules that would update the local electoral register to give tens of thousands of newer residents the right to vote.

Some 600 heavily armed French police have “neutralized” 76 roadblocks on the 60-kilometer route between the capital Nouméa and La Tontouta International Airport, officials said. The airport remains closed to all commercial flights.

Hailing Sunday’s operation as a “success,” the French high commission in New Caledonia said forces would remove burned-out vehicles littering the key route for essential food and material supplies. Pro-independence, largely Indigenous Kanak activists, said they would not release their chokehold.

…

Indigenous Kanaks make up about 40% of the population but tend to be poorer and have fewer years of schooling than European Caledonians. Kanak groups say the latest voting regulations would dilute the Indigenous vote.

The presidents the local governments of four other French overseas territories – La Réunion in the Indian Ocean, Guadeloupe and Martinique in the Caribbean and French Guiana in South America – on Sunday called for the withdrawal of the voting reform in an open letter.

Civil liberties groups have challenged a local TikTok ban, with an emergency hearing scheduled at France’s top administrative court in Paris for Tuesday.

It’s funny how it’s always TikTok that’s the threat, no?

It’s almost like the Chinese actually allow freedom of speech, while these American companies socially engineer whatever outcome they want in every country they are allowed to operate.

Diversity is New Caledonia’s greatest strength