The French senate endorsed a constitutional amendment in Paris on Wednesday regarding the future independence of New Caledonia.

An alliance between far-right conservative and centre-right political parties ensured 215 senators overwhelmingly voted in favour of replacing the 1998 Noumea Accord — which was previously entrenched in the French Constitution — with a new political statute for the post-colonial, ruling archipelago.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu personally intervened before the senate by crossing the houses for an address amid the lengthy debate, urging support from similar-leaning parliamentarians for his Renaissance party's legislation.

Mr Lecornu, 39, said maintaining the status quo on New Caledonia's position was "not a viable option" and to not change its position is tantamount to "abandoning France's republican ideals, social progress and the renewed construction of peace" in its largest French Pacific territory.

"This (Bougival) agreement is not perfect", Mr Lecornu said, speaking to the senate chamber, "but it is the best we have collectively come up with in four years of negotiations."

Among the 41 senators who voted against the text in the house of 348 parliamentarians, including nearly 100 others who abstained from the process, New Caledonian senator Robert Xowie was quick to caution his colleagues.

The text proposes to establish a State of New Caledonia within the French realm, as well as a correlated New Caledonian nationality, which remains tied to a pre-existing French nationality amid a new process of gradual transfer of powers from Paris which will reject any future use of referendums.

Mr Xowie, a Kanak man of the Siloam tribe, is one of two Paris-based senators representing close to 270,000 people in addition to the two other New Caledonia representatives in France's lower-house national assembly.

"Kanaky-New Caledonia has already paid a heavy price because of the (French) government's stubbornness," Mr Xowie told senators.

The leading Caledonian Union voice warned the French government "not to repeat errors in the past" amid a direct reference to the deadly 2024 riots that have contributed to sidelining proposed elections in New Caledonia.

On the Senate floor, Mr Xowie criticised the government's legislation and called for fresh elections in New Caledonia rather than continuing with a process which doesn't have the support of Indigenous Kanaks.

"Rather than wasting New Caledonians' time, I propose that provincial elections be held as soon as possible so that a new legitimacy can engage in calm discussions," he said.

Three election dates have been cancelled since the riots which killed 13 people, after Paris moved to change electoral eligibility rules to include French Metropolitan residents.

The move would have likely increased the opposition to Noumea gaining full political independence from the French Republic's capital.

A little more than 40 per cent of New Caledonia's population are Indigenous Kanaky, as opposed to nearly 25 per cent of the electorate being European born, mostly from France.

Opponents to the amendment suggest the constitutional change does not go far enough to return control toward Indigenous people.

They argue any pretense the text was fair would further contribute to diluting Kanaky voices at local elections.

Goerges Naturel, a pro-France representative in the Les Républicains party, was one of nearly 30 per cent of senators, who abstained from voting.

The 70-year-old born in Noumea of Caldoche origins, a descendant of the first French settlers in the mid-19th century colonial possession, admitted "deep inside, I know the constitutional reform will unfortunately not bring a stable and long-term political solution that New Caledonia needs".

"In the highly unlikely event that this constitutional amendment is successful, I cannot imagine the difficulties your government will face in organising the local referendum provided for in the Bougival Accord," Mr Naturel said.

The proposed Bougival Accord was initially endorsed last year by a large majority of New Caledonia's parliamentary parties which are represented in Noumea's congress.

But since August 2025, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, an alliance including Mr Xowie's Caledonian Union party, has withdrawn its signature to the deal, saying the proposed agreements do not represent a credible path to the full sovereignty which multiple Indigenous parties demand.