Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front

Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front Front de libération nationale kanak et socialiste
Leader	None
Founded	1984 (1984)
Headquarters	Nouméa
Ideology	Separatism, Melanesian socialism
National affiliation	None, close to the Socialist Party
International affiliation	None
European affiliation	None
European Parliament Group	None
Official colours	Red
Seats in the Congress	8
Seats in the South Province	4
Seats in the North Province	17
Seats in the Loyalty Islands Province	8
Politics of New Caledonia Political parties Elections

The Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (French: Front de Libération Nationale Kanak et Socialiste, FLNKS) is a militant socialist pro-independence alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It was founded in 1984 at a congress of various political parties, mainly indigenous but also of disgruntled and progressive New Caledonians of European descent.

Overview

The FLNKS is composed of the Caledonian Union (UC) (a center-left formerly multi-ethnic party dating back to the early postwar period) on one hand and the National Union for Independence (UNI) on the other hand. The UNI includes Melanesian Progressive Union (a political movement based on the island's west coast and mainly around the village of Poya, where its founder, the late Edmond Nekiriai hails from), the Oceanian Democratic Rally (a Polynesian (Wallisian-and-Futunian) based party) and the Party of Kanak Liberation (PALIKA), a more radical party founded by left leaning students that came back from France after the May 1968 riots. Both the UC and UNI are of approximately equal size, and with varying rhetoric. However, all support the independence of New Caledonia

The party has been divided since the early 1990s between the Caledonian Union and UNI, and, as a result, the two factions often run candidates and lists against each other and neither can agree on a name for the leader of the FLNKS. The coalition only has a spokesperson, Victor Tutugoro.

An attempt to re-unite the party was made on the occasion of the 2007 legislative elections in France, in which both New Caledonian constituencies were up for election. In New Caledonia's 1st constituency, Charles Washetine, a member of UNI-Palika ran with a Caledonian Union running mate. In New Caledonia's 2nd constituency, the leader of the Caledonian Union, Charles Pidjot, ran with a UNI-Palika running mate. However, both were defeated by the candidates of The Rally-UMP.

The FLNKS ran a common list in the South Province in the 2009 election which obtained 8.82% and 4 seats in the province. The division of the nationalists in the province in 2004 had caused the pro-independence faction not to win any seats.

Presidents

• Jean-Marie Tjibaou (1984-1989)
• Paul Néaoutyine (1989-1995)
• Rock Wamytan (1995-2001)