They refuse a big increase in their health insurance contributions.
On Tuesday 28 February, more than 6000 people demonstrated throughout New Caledonia against the health insurance reform project (Ruamm). The reform project consists in increasing the contribution of self-employed workers. For the past twenty years, the self-employed (all non-salaried workers) have paid less than other categories of the population. They had obtained this advantage after large demonstrations, some of which were violent. The self-employed justify themselves by saying that many of them have very low incomes. It is true that this category of the population is not homogeneous. It includes small craftsmen who live with great difficulty as well as heads of very successful companies.
There is also politics…
However, the economic issue is not the only one. The project was presented by Milakulo Tukumuli’s Oceanian Awakening party. On this point, he is followed by the FLNKS independentists. The loyalists (anti-independence) are against the project.
L’Eveil océanien has the particularity of associating with the independentists on some subjects and with the loyalists on others.
Gerald Darmanin, Emmanuel Macron’s Minister of the Interior, is arriving in Caledonia tomorrow, 2 March, for a highly anticipated visit…
