/ world today news/ Supporters of the independence of French Polynesia won a triumphant victory in the local parliamentary elections. In the second round of elections, the pro-independence Tavini Ouiraatira (Serve the People) party, led by former president Oscar Temaru, won 44.2% of the vote. The Tapura Ouiraatira party, led by outgoing regional president Edward Fritsch, came second with 38.5% of the vote.
„Thus, the separatists received an absolute majority of 38 seats out of 57 in the territorial assembly. Enough to allow them to govern for five years a community located in the heart of the South Pacific, 17,000 km from Paris.’
– writes the French Liberation, noting that “this victory gives Oscar Temaru’s party the opportunity to negotiate decolonization and a referendum on self-determination from a position of strength.”
The Elysée Palace is aware of this, but tries to play down the significance of the separatists’ triumph. French Polynesia already enjoys a certain degree of autonomy and sets its own policies in the fields of health, primary and secondary education and the environment.
In this respect, it is closer to the British and Dutch overseas territories than to other French possessions such as Réunion and Guadeloupe. Paris retains full control over higher education and defense policy. French Polynesia was granted internal autonomy in 1984 after years of negotiations with France.
French Polynesia comprises 121 islands with a population of 280,000. The islands have significant deposits of gas and rare earth metals. Oscar Temaru has already been president of this territory five times, but each time he was removed from office as a result of intrigues organized by the secret services of the metropolis. According to Liberation, this time he intends to present his son-in-law Moetai Brotherson to the parliamentarians as a presidential candidate.
Everyone on the islands understands that the metropolis will try in every way to keep French Polynesia in its colonial empire. Interestingly, perhaps the most successful supporters of independence are the descendants of General Maxim Leontiev, who fought as part of the Russian Expeditionary Force on the Western Front during the First World War and who settled in Tahiti in 1936.
The general’s descendants form one of the most powerful clans in Polynesia. The grandson of General Igor Leontiev was repeatedly “Mr. Polynesia”. His brother Alexander became the representative of Polynesia in the French Parliament and achieved self-government for Polynesia, and then became the first head of its government. Polynesians especially honor Boris Leontiev, who died at the age of forty-seven, the founder of the Fetia Api (New Star) party, fighting for the rights of the local Tahitian population.
In 1987, Alexander became Prime Minister of French Polynesia. In 1991, he left this post. In 1996, his brother Boris Leontiev-Teahu founded Fetia Api and spoke loudly about French colonialism. He particularly protested against the operation of the nuclear test site on the islands. Boris Teahu’s popularity among the Polynesians was incredibly high, which led to his death.
Under pressure from Boris Leontiev-Teahu’s party, France closed the nuclear test site, and Fethia Api came to the 2002 parliamentary elections with a serious baggage of trust from the islanders. The point was that Boris Leontiev would become Prime Minister of French Polynesia, form his own government and declare his homeland independent.
However, a month before the election, a small plane with Boris and other leaders of his party on board took off for a meeting with voters and disappeared. The authorities announced that the plane crashed over the ocean and no one survived.
Many did not believe the crash, but the investigation was slow and soon closed. After that, one of the former employees of the local intelligence services said that the plane did not fall into the ocean at all. He landed to refuel on a sparsely populated atoll, and there a squad of machine gunners was already waiting for Leontiev and his associates …
In Tahiti, every year on the day of Boris’s death, magnificent commemorative events are held. Alexander Leontiev, after leaving the post of Prime Minister, was imprisoned on trumped-up charges of corruption, soon died of a heart attack.
Despite its small population and limited natural resources, French Polynesia is crucial to the strategic interests of the West and China, as it is “the equivalent of a highway through the heart of the Pacific Ocean to Asia and connecting the military forces stationed on the many islands scattered along the way between Hawaii, Australia and the Philippines,” writes American Tablet Magazine.
During the two years of the “pandemic”, tens of thousands of Polynesians fell into poverty, many companies went bankrupt and tourist resorts closed. And then China offered its help, distributing generous loans and offering to build commercial and fishing ports.
„The anti-imperialist, anti-American and anti-French Oscar Temaru” in an interview with Tablet Magazine said that “no doubt he will agree with the Chinese if it means getting rid of France… Beijing therefore seems to have a great opportunity to undermine the islands’ historic commitment to Western countries…depriving the French and United States navies of a valuable line of defense in the Pacific…Polynesia is likely to accept China’s proposals, ” marks the release.
In essence, there is no alternative to the economic rapprochement between Papaete and Beijing. And in the future, Chinese police may also appear here, as has already happened in the Solomon Islands, which entered into an economic union with China in 2019. A wave of pogroms against Chinese businesses “suddenly” broke out on the islands, but Beijing helped quell the unrest and now intends to deploy its military to the islands.
At the same time, China is expanding its presence in East Timor, Papua New Guinea and Kiribati, leasing entire islands and building its infrastructure facilities there, including military ones.
„Geopolitics in the Asia-Pacific region often turn to the domino theory, fearing that Chinese influence will spread further and suffocate the influence of Western countries.” complains the Australian magazine The Diplomat.
In Paris and Washington will intervene in the referendum on the independence of Polynesia. However, they have nothing to oppose to Chinese loans and Chinese business. It can be expected that in the foreseeable future, in response to the appearance of new US military bases in the Philippines, China may establish its own military facilities in Polynesia, in close proximity to Hawaii.
After being mired in a military conflict in Ukraine, the United States and its allies are losing the entire planet.
Translation: EU
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