Always weird to me how France is so insistent on clinging to its colonial empire, two decades into the 21st century, despite the headaches that causes.

  • AutoTL;DRBEnglish
    8•7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    PARIS — Deadly violence continued for a third night in the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia over a proposed change to France’s Constitution that would give voting rights to an increasing number of non-Indigenous residents of the archipelago.

    French TV reports showed stores and cars in New Caledonia that were looted and burned, and citizens, some of them armed with rifles and machetes, clashing with riot police.

    At least four people have been killed in the violence, including a police officer who was shot in the forehead at point blank range, according to French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.

    France declared a state of emergency on Wednesday for at least 12 days and dispatched hundreds of riot police to the archipelago, as French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm.

    The semiautonomous territory is important for France as the European country cements its place as a strategic power player in the Indo-Pacific region.

    Political tensions have simmered for years in the archipelago — pitting the island’s largely pro-independence Indigenous Kanak communities against the mostly French inhabitants opposed to breaking away from France.

    The original article contains 473 words, the summary contains 181 words. Saved 62%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!