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Joint hoisting of the French and FLNKS flags in New Caledonia

French national and FLNKS flag - Images by Željko Heimer, 22 September 2001, and Arnaud Leroy, 16 March 2006, respectively

First steps towards the joint hoisting of the two flags
Official joint hoisting of the two flags
- The joint hoisting of the two flags in practice
- Legal status of the joint hoisting
Combined flag used by FIFA

See also:

First steps towards the joint hoisting of the two flags

AFP (Agence France-Presse) reports on 12 February 2010 a first step towards a possible official recognition of the independentist flag of New Caledonia.
Interviewed by Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, the Representative Pierre Frogier, President of Rassemblement-UMP (that is, the anti- independentist, local branch of UMP), proposed to accept the independentist flag (the FLNKS flag) to be flown side by side with the French national flag. The independentist flag would "represent the Melanesian and Oceanian part of New Caledonia, indissociable from its European and French identity". Frogier expects the independentists "to lift any ambiguity and bring the flag as a cultural symbol rid of the violence that taunts it." "Adding our two legitimities, we would have made a new step towards each other", added Frogier.
Frogier's statement is quite surprising since the discussions on the future symbols of New Caledonia, provisioned by the Nouméa Agreement signed in 1998, were rather stuck. Very reluctant with new symbols in the past, Rassemblement-UMP seems to follow now a direction given by President of the Republic Nicolas Sarkozy in his New Years' Wishes. The President expected "discussions to start much earlier than 2014 [the earliest date for the self-determination referendum] to obtain a consensual status that could be approved "by a very large majority".

The independentists approved Frogier's statement. Charles Pidjot, President of Union Calédonienne, a component of FLNKS, sayd that "it is a step in a constructive approach for the country. The common future should not remain a literary formula."
Jean-Pierre Djiawé, from Palika, another component of FLNKS, approved the proposal but recalled that in the Loyauté Islands Province, ran by the independentists, the two flags were already used side by side.
Didier Leroux (Center) "would have prefered a common flag" but admitted that Frogier's initiative was "natural".

Ivan Sache & Pascal Vagnat, 17 February 2010

Official joint hoisting of the two flags

The Congress of of New Caledonia approved on 13 July 2010 a motion that acknowledged the proposal of flying jointly the two flags. Out of 54 elected members, 42 voted for the motion. The French Prime Minister, François Fillon, was asked to inaugurate the official use of the two flags, when he makes a visit to the island.

The official ceremony of raising the two flags took place on 17 July 2010 in the Haut-Commissariat (French administration), in the presence of the French Prime Minister, François Fillon, and of the local authorities (video). Three flags were indeed hoisted: the French national flag, the FLNKS flag (called the "flag of the Kanak country" by some reporters), and, in the middle, the flag of the Superior Command of the Armed Forces in New Caledonia.

The use of the joint flags was eventually prescribed on 27 July 2010 by the Government of New Caledonia, following a vote of the Executive (7 out of 11 approved the hoisting).
The use of the joint flags caused the fall of the Government of New Caledonia on 17 February 2011. The three members of the Executive belonging to Union Calédonienne (UC), part of the FLNKS coalition, resigned. They claimed that the President of the Government, Philippe Gomés (also Mayor of La Foa), "obstructed" to the adoption of the two flags as the emblem of New Caledonia. Charles Pidjot, President of UC, considered that Gomès was responsible of the refusal by four municipalities to jointly hoist the two flags (Le Monde, 17 February 2011).

Jos Poels, André Coutanche, Pascal Vagnat & Ivan Sache, 18 February 2011

Ten years later, both flags fly above many official buildings. Meanwhile, the joint raising of the flag remains contested due to a lack of legal basis.

Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025

The joint hoisting of the two flags in practice

De facto second flag of Nouvelle-Calédonie
left, design hoisted on 17 July 2010, 2:3 - Image by Arnaud Leroy, 16 March 2006
right, design annexed to the motion adopted on 13 July 2010 by the Congress: 1:2 - Image by Zoltán Horváth, 8 August 2024

Comparison of the 2010 flags - Images located by Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025 and Zoltán Horváth, 8 August 2024

The motion adopted on 13 July 2010, stated that "the flag described in the annex and the national flag be flown together in New Caledonia" [source] . This motion does not, however, have any legally binding force.

On the picture of the flags effectively raised in July 2010 [source: Le Monde], the kanak flag has a 2:3 ration and a thicker design of the emblem. It should be noted that when the two flags are raised, the kanak flag is generally in ratio 2:3 like the French tricolore. But the image annexed to the motion by the Congress has a 1:2 ratio.

Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025

The two flags are jointly hoisted :

by the Government of New Caledonia (photo, workshop on sports, 1 August 2013; photo, visit of the French Prime Minister, 26 July 2013; photo, 19th Summit of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, 20 June 2013; photo, meeting with the Higher Commissioner of the Republic, 28 February 2013; photo, visit of the Japanese Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, 25 February 2013).
by the three Provincial Assemblies. The Loyauté Islands and North Provinces, mostly inhabited by Kanaks, have been using the flags since 1989. On 7 August 2010, the Provincial Assembly of the South Province hoisted the two flags. Pierre Frogier, President of the Province, a strong opponent to the design of a third, common flag, presented the joint hoisting as a "token of trust to FLNKS".
by all of the 33 New Caledonian municipalities but three: Bourail, La Foa and Maré. Ending a long reluctance, the Municipal Council of Moindou hoisted the two flags on 15 February 2012 (Les Nouvelles Calédoniennes, 16 February 2012).
Bourail is considered as the Caldoche capital, which explains the rejection of the FLNKS flag. The municipal executive claimed that Pierre Frogier had never cared explaining the rationale of the joint use of the two flags, which he eventually did in Bourail on 10 May 2012 (video). On 20 September 2012, Jean-Pierre Aïfa, Mayor of Bourail, supported by some members of the Municipal Council, made a quite odd and controversial proposal. He suggested to adopt a Country Law (specific to New Caledonia) stating: "The flag of the country is the Kanak identitary flag. The name of the country is Nouvelle-Calédonie". This would respect both the Kanak identity and the "future shared by all" (Nouvelle-Calédonie 1^ère, 21 September 2012).

Ivan Sache, 19 August 2013

In July 2020, the family of Charly Pidjot wished to commemorate this event ten years later to the day with a small celebration held in Mont-Dore, in the La Conception cemetery where the former president of the Caledonian Union, who died in 2012, and who was one of the initiators of this double raising, is buried. [source: France TV La 1re].

Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025

Legal status of the joint hoisting

A recent debate about the driving licenses in New Caledonia allow us to take stock of the situation.

2023-2025 driving license model in New Caledonia - Image located by Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025

By a decree dated July 5, 2023, the New Caledonian government planned to display the national emblem and the "FLNKS flag" side by side on the driver's license issued in New Caledonia.
In a judgment dated July 18, 2024, the Administrative Court of New Caledonia overturned this decision on the grounds that this flag was not, at the time of the contested decision, among the identity symbols adopted by the country, unlike the anthem, the motto, and the design of banknotes.

Under Article 5 of the Organic Law of March 19, 1999: "New Caledonia freely determines the identity symbols that allow it to express its personality alongside the national emblem and the symbols of the Republic. It may decide to change its name. These decisions are taken under the conditions set out in Chapter II of Title III and by a three-fifths majority of the members of Congress." » The laws of the country (Article 99 of the said Organic Law) intervene in particular to specify the "Identity signs and name mentioned in Article 5" (with implementation, pursuant to Article 126 of the same Organic Law, by the government of New Caledonia).

Under the terms of point 1.5 of the Nouméa Agreement signed on May 5, 1998, relating to symbols: "Identity signs of the country, name, flag, anthem, motto, and banknote designs will be sought together to express the Kanak identity and the future shared by all." In this case, by National Law No. 2010-11 of September 9, 2010, New Caledonia had, at the time of the contested decision, only adopted three of the five identity signs immediately included in this agreement: the anthem, the design, and the design of the banknotes.

The Administrative Court of New Caledonia therefore censored the driving license model with the following wording: "5. Under these conditions, the flag in question, which cannot, under the current law, be considered an identity symbol within the meaning of the agreement, could not legally be affixed to an official document such as a driving license. "6. It follows from all of the above, and without there being any need to rule on the other grounds of the application, that New Caledonia Government Order No. 2023-1631/GNC of 5 July 2023, insofar as it provides, in Article 7 and Annex 1, for the national emblem and the FLNKS flag to appear side by side on the driving licence issued in New Caledonia, as well as the implied decision by which New Caledonia rejected the applicants' appeal, must be annulled."

The Government has not implemented this decision, even though the appeal does not have suspensive effect, resulting in more than 4.4 million Pacific Francs (just over €36,500) in penalty payments.
The Paris Administrative Court of Appeal confirmed this in February 2025: Since the Noumea Accord and the Organic Law of March 19, 1999, contain special provisions relating to the use of a flag to mark the identity of New Caledonia, the New Caledonian government could not decide that driving licenses issued by New Caledonia would feature, alongside the French flag, a flag that was not the country's identity symbol, adopted in accordance with the procedure provided for in the Organic Law. It is clear from the documents in the case that, while the country's law of September 9, 2010, relating to three identity symbols of New Caledonia, adopted the identity symbols referred to in Article 1.5 of the Noumea Accord relating to the anthem, motto, and banknote design, no law of the country has adopted a flag. "Under these conditions, the administrative court of New Caledonia was right to hold that the flag in question, since it had not been adopted under the conditions provided for by Article 99 of the organic law of 19 March 1999, could not be legally affixed to an official document such as a driving licence."

[source: law firm Landot & associés blog]

Olivier Touzeau, 17 March 2025

Combined flag used by FIFA

Combined flag used by FIFA - Image from FIFA website located by Dave Fowler, 20 March 2022

The attached photo is of a combined French/New Caledonia flag flown at the World Cup qualifiers in Qatar today, and posted by Hansj�rgen Jablonski in the FOTW Facebook group.

Dave Fowler, 20 March 2022

This is the flag used by FIFA since 2017.

Jean-Marc Merklin, 20 March 2022

Actual c ombined flag used by FIFA - Image by Ivan Sache, 7 May 2022

On the flag in actual use, the two main fields are separated by a vertical white fimbriation and there is no block fimbriation around the yellow disc.

Ivan Sache, 7 May 2022