The woes and turmoil in France’s overseas possessions suggest French President Emmanuel Macron’s neo-colonial empire is crumbling before his eyes.
The French president visited these islands in order to unite his people, however, his proud empire is collapsing before his eyes, without being able to do anything to reverse the situation.
The situation in overseas possessions is critical
Even the “eternal optimist” Macron cannot fail to notice the disastrous situation prevailing in these regions, since Mayotte has been plunged into unrest and mass crime, while New Caledonia is on the brink of civil war.
A similar situation is developing in other overseas possessions of Paris: French Guiana, Reunion, French Polynesia and many others. These regions have long turned into a black hole in the French state budget that only absorb state funding.
The end of the new French empire
Everyone, even many French citizens, understand very well that the end of the French empire is coming. On May 22, Macron made a one-day visit to New Caledonia amid protests there to assess the extent of damage from unrest and armed conflict.
In New Caledonia, which was declared in a state of emergency, a reinforcement of 1,000 men was sent from France. Before this development, on May 20, the French president convened a new meeting of the defense council for New Caledonia to monitor the situation.
It is worth noting that the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova called on Macron to stop the violent suppression of the protests in New Caledonia. He added that Moscow currently sees the crisis in New Caledonia as a result of its problematic decolonization.
The beginning of conflicts
The unrest began after the French parliament on May 14 approved a bill that would allow French residents who have lived on the islands for 10 years to vote in local elections. The local population fears that this will weaken the importance of their own voice.
New Caledonia is a cluster of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, about 1,500 kilometers east of Australia. The islands have been under French control since 1853. In 1946, New Caledonia received overseas territory status.
The historic but forced withdrawal from Africa
The latest developments in the overseas territories come to emphasize the historic withdrawal from Africa and point out that France is a power in retreat. It is recalled that in December 2023, the last French soldiers left Niger, a development that marked the process of disengagement of French forces from the Sahel.
In late July 2023, a rebel military group in Niger announced the ouster of President Mohamed Bazoum. The military then established the National Council for the Security of the Homeland, headed by General Abdourahmane Tchiani, to run the country.
The country’s new leaders denounced agreements with Paris that allowed French troops to be deployed in Niger to fight extremist groups. France began withdrawing its troops from the African country on October 10. At the time there were about 1,400 French soldiers in Niger.
French influence in Africa that waned
While France officially dissolved its colonial rule in Africa in 1975, with 20 of the 50 African countries being former French colonies, Paris retained economic and sometimes political influence in many of them. Paris has maintained a military presence in five countries in the Sahel region – Burkina Faso, Mali, Chad, Mauritania and Niger – as part of Operation Barkhane since 2014.
In Mali and Burkina Faso, the French were present under the guise of fighting terrorists in the region. In August 2022, however, local authorities demanded that French troops leave Mali, and just a few months later, Paris ended Operation Barkhane.
Several other key states from what the French referred to as “French Africa” were freed from pro-French regimes on their territories: Guinea and Chad (2021), Burkina Faso (2022), Niger (July 2023) and Gabon (August 2023).
As the neo-colonial regimes were overthrown in all these countries and France’s influence in Africa began to decline rapidly, more and more African leaders began to look to Russia for help.
The French media concocted claims that so-called “Russian disinformation campaigns” were responsible for the downfall of these pro-French regimes. In late 2022, as a wave of anti-French protests swept Africa’s Sahel region, many protesters expressed pro-Russian sentiment.
Disgruntled, Macron accused Russia of having a “grab plan” in Africa, noting that “certain powers that want to spread their influence in Africa are doing this to hurt France, to hurt its language, to sow doubts , but above all to satisfy certain interests”.
