The 53-year-old former rugby prop says he is in favor of a smooth transition to independence from France. He hopes for a self-determination referendum within ten years.
The separatist Moetai Brotherson was largely elected Friday president of French Polynesia, by the representatives of the local Assembly of this community of the South Pacific.
This 53-year-old former rugby pillar, in favor of a smooth transition to independence, was chosen by the 38 separatist representatives of the Assembly, elected in the territorial elections on April 30.
In a Territorial Assembly of 57 seats, where the separatists thus have an absolute majority, the representatives also granted 16 votes to the outgoing autonomist president Édouard Fritch, and 3 to another autonomist candidate, Nicole Sanquer. The day before, they had elected another separatist, Antony Géros, at the head of the Assembly.
“Do not fear independence”
In a speech delivered without notes, Moetai Brotherson assured France of its “respect” while calling on the population not to “fear independence”, which will “never be imposed” on Polynesians.
Despite the re-registration in 2013 of French Polynesia on the UN list of non-autonomous territories to be decolonized, France has never wished to engage in negotiations around the decolonization of this community.
Far from the peaceful spirit displayed by Moetai Brotherson, the new President of the Assembly, Antony Géros, considered in his first speech that France had “used its authority to make and break majorities according to its interests, until ‘to come and instrumentalise the elected officials’ during the political instability, between 2004 and 2013.
Antony Géros, close to Oscar Temaru, the founding president of Tavini Huiraatira, represents the radical line of the Polynesian independence party, which wants rapid independence.
A self-determination referendum “in 10 to 15 years”?
Moetai Brotherson on the contrary indicated that he hoped for a self-determination referendum “in 10 to 15 years” and considered “not to be able to get there in the next five years under good conditions”.
Their large majority not having much to fear from the separatist opposition, the main question concerns the coexistence between these two lines, one of which will control the government and the other the Assembly.
In Polynesia, the wave of degagism hit the separatists hard, some of whom, like Édouard Fritch or Gaston Tong Sang, had been in power almost continuously for around forty years.
