Harold Martin

Harold Martin is a French politician, born the April 6th 1954 with Noumea (New Caledonia), president since the August 7th 2007 of the government of New Caledonia.

Resulting from one of the oldest families of European origins present on the Territory, Harold Martin (to pronounce “Martine”) goes down from one of the nephews of James Paddon, trading and adventurer originating in Lincolnshire in Great Britain, generally regarded as the very first colonist to have made stock in New Caledonia, before even the taking possession of the archipelago by the France in 1853.

He is manager of agricultural companies and administrator of organizations of breeding. He was thus chairman of the board of the Establishment of Regulation of the Farm prices (ERPA) in 1991, 1993 and of 1994 with 1995, like chair Office of marketing and refrigerating storage (OCEF) of 1988 1999. It launched out very early in the policy and was a long time the “foal” of Jacques Lafleur.

Protected from Jacques Lafleur

It belongs to the very first members of the Rassemblement for Calédonie which quickly becomes the Rassemblement for Calédonie in the Republic: member of this party as of his creation in 1977 (it was then 23 years old), it “is protected” from the leader of the party and new strong man of the camp anti-freedom fighter and the Territory Jacques Lafleur, a personal friend of his father. Harold Martin then becomes one of the principal lieutenants of the deputy of which it organizes the campaigns.

He is elected the first time at the territorial Parliament, ancestor of the Congress of the Territory, at the time of the elections of the November 18th 1984: boycotted by the freedom fighters of FLNKS, these elections are the true starting point of the “Events” which opposed violently in favor and opponents of independence until in 1988. Not having never occupied jusques there of real political positions of importance, Harold Martin begins his political ascendance then: he becomes in particular the “lieutenant” for the “Bush” of Jacques Lafleur.

Of the lieutenant of the “Bush” to the possible dolphin

Of 1984 with 1989, during all the period of the Events, he is president of the Commission of the rural Economy. Re-elected with the new Congress of the Territory like to the Council of the Southern Area created by the Fabius-Pisani statute the September 29th 1985, it becomes, after the adoption of the statute Pons II, president of the Area Centers the April 29th 1988 and thus sits in fact at the Executive council until the June 11th 1989. After the Agreements of Matignon in 1988 and the adoption of the new statute, it is elected without stopping with the Parliament of the Southern Province and with the Congress.

In the Nineties, its statute of “right-hand man” of Jacques Lafleur for the Bush is confirmed, while arriving in particular at the head of the ERPA and the OCEF and is elected in 1995 mayor of Païta, commune located in the Grand Noumea but primarily rural, to replace his/her cousin Ronald Martin. With that new responsibilities are added which do of it one of the strong men of RPCR: he becomes thus president of the Congress to replace Pierre Frogier (elected appointed) of the July 16th 1997 with the June 3rd 1998 before becoming president of the Standing committee and 1st vice-president of the Congress starting from the June 3rd 1998. It is then with foreground of negotiations which has abbouti with the Accords of Noumea, of which he is one of the signatories, in 1998. Re-elected president of the Standing committee of the Congress the July 23rd 1999, it seems more and more a potential dolphin of Jacques Lafleur, with the deputy and mayor of the Mount-Gilds Pierre Frogier. Indeed, more than ever before, he is the spokesperson of Jacques Lafleur and the countryside of RPCR at the time of the provincial ones of 1999, and is in particular then particularly sour against Didier Leroux, leader of a party anti-freedom fighter but so anti-Lafleur, or towards the other figure of the anti-freedom fighters of Bush, the mayor of Koumac Robert Frouin, near of Leroux, in particular at the time of the sometimes surging scèances of the Congress where he is spokesperson of the group RPCR. It is him also which organizes in September 2000 the extraordinary congress of RPCR to Bourail to invite Jacques Lafleur not to resign of its electoral mandates as it intended to do it at the time. One then regards it readily as one of the grognards of the deputy and strong man of the Territory, pointing out oneself by his often sour glares and his formulas. However, whereas it seems more and more the most probable successor of Jacques Lafleur when this one is withdrawn, it is precisely at this time that it is repudiated by the latter and its party.

The entry in dissidence

In February 2001, the commission of nomination of RPCR indicates like chief candidate for the local elections with Païta Ronald Martin, the predecessor and cousin of Harold Martin. Harold Martin rejects this designation and is presented to its own succession. Jacques Lafleur reacts quickly by threatening of exclusion its old protected. This one maintains its candidature: the threat of exclusion is put at execution at a few weeks of the election, the February 28th 2001. Harold Martin is finally re-elected as of the 1st turn the March 11th 2001 with 53,83% of the votes (2 271 votes, it had also been elected with the 1st turn in 1995 with 54,7%, but it was then with the head of the only list RPCR) and 24 seats out of 29, against only 20,54% (867 votes) and 3 elected officials with the official list of RPCR of Ronald Martin. If RPCR then obtains a big hit at the time of these elections on the whole of the territory, thus gaining the anti-Lafleur traditional stronghold of Bourail and the common freedom fighter of Poya, the local elections of Païta acts as a true political shockwave. For much, to decide not to reinvest Harold Martin for the town hall of this commune was the first large error of government scheme of Jacques Lafleur and some of its opponents saw there the will of a man fixed on the capacity to eliminate a man of which the ambition started to obstruct it. For Lafleur and its partisans, it is Harold Martin alone which was excluded in fact of RPCR by an ambition that it compares with a kind of ambitiousness. At all events, the victory of Harold Martin does not arrange his relationships to the leading authorities of the party: the mayor is thus convened in front of the directory of the movement which excludes it definitively the March 22nd 2001. Harold Martin is not re-elected president of the Standing committee of the Congress during the renewal of the composition of the commissions the June 7th 2001.

However, during a time, Harold Martin does not accept this sanction: it seizes the courts to make cancel this decision and conducts an active campaign near the sections of RPCR so that the question of its litigation with the leaders of the party is solved by a vote of the militants. It approaches then another old near to the Gathering, owner of the hotel and the restaurant of Kuendu Beach to Nouville, Henri Morini, entered him also in conflict with the leading authorities of RPCR. Lastly, come to take part in the Congress of the Gathering held with Bourail the June 23rd 2001, it is driven back, him and its militants, with the entry of the room of the sports where the assembly was held, which has plebiscite then once again Jacques Lafleur. On another side, Harold Martin does not demolish yet a RPCR: he votes in favor of the lists drawn up by this last for the constitution of the office and the commissions of the Congress and for that of the government; he gives also his support for the candidature of Simon Loueckhote for the senatorial elections in September 2001. AND if it decides the December 17th 2001 with its two principal supports within the group RPCR - FCCI for the Congress, Philippe Michel and Sosimo Malalua, not to more follow the official directives of the party at the time of the votes to the Congress, it renews its request with the leading authorities of the party to be reincorporated within the movement at the beginning of 2002 and gives its support for the candidates of the Gathering to legislative of June 2002.

But parallel to this insistence to become again member of RPCR, Harold Martin hides less and less his opposition to Jacques Lafleur and with its faithful while certain members of the Gathering approach him, like the mayor of Foa Philippe Gomès or that of the Mount-Gilds Réginald Bernut. Finally, it approaches its rival passed, Didier Leroux, dissident of long time of the Gathering, and decides to form with him in March 2004 a joint list for the provincial ones of May. It is the first step together towards the constitution of the list Avenir.

One of the tenors of the Future together

After the provincial ones of May 2004, it is re-elected member of the Parliament of the Southern Province and the Congrès, while the list Avenir together arrives at the head in the Southern Province with 19 elected officials out of 40, in front of the RPCR and its 16 seats. With the Congress, where this list joining together all disappointed the anti-freedom fighters of the “Lafleur system” made, with 16 elected officials, good match with the Gathering, Harold Martin is presented by the Avenir together vis-a-vis Jean Lèques to become president of the deliberating assembly territorial. He then receives the voices of the 16 members of his group and the support awaited of the single elected official of LKS Nidoïsh Naisseline but also those more unexpected of the 4 FN and of 7 elected officials of the Union calédonienne: he is thus elected with 28 votes out of 54 compared with 17 with Jean Lèques and 9 abstentions (8 of the PLAIN one FLNKS and a dissident of CPU). He is re-elected every year since then but each time with the 3rd ballot and relative of 22 vote (16 Avenir together, 1 LKS, 4 dissenting FN and 1 of the group Gathering-UMP: Suzie Vigouroux).

Then, the Avenir together constitutes in political party at the time of the congress founder of Kuendu Beach to Nouville with Noumea the August 28th 2004 and Harold Martin is elected by it president on October 1st. He is re-elected at the time of the 3rd Congress of the party held with the Venezia room of Nouvata Park Hotel of the Vata Handle to Noumea the September 30th 2006 by 2451 votes out of 2587 voters. In spite of his political alliance with Didier Leroux, regional delegate of the UDF in New Caledonia, Harold Martin remained member of the UMP and is deeply sarkozyste.

With the approach of the electoral deadlines of 2007, Nicolas Sarkozy makes very to reconcile the two “enemy brothers” of the local UMP, Harold Martin and Pierre Frogier (president of the Gathering-UMP). Nicolas Sarkozy thus benefitted from the presence of the two men to national convention for Overseas of the party to organize a meeting under the mediation of its principal private secretary Frederic Lefebvre. However this meeting, called by the local mediums “the business of the Sandwich”, made it possible only to establish a thing: the support of the two men for Nicolas Sarkozy for the presidential ones. And at the time of the legislative , Harold Martin was the candidate of the Avenir together in the 2 {{E}} district vis-a-vis Pierre Frogier. It arrived in third position, with 22,4% of the votes, with the 1st turn behind Pierre Frogier and the freedom fighter of FLNKS - CPU Charles Pidjot. For the second turn, it invited to vote for the outgoing deputy as a candidate anti-freedom fighter best placed, and Pierre Frogier was thus re-elected.

Following this poll, and in front of the strong will of the new president of the Republic to reconcile the two “enemy brothers” sarkozystes calédoniens, Pierre Frogier and Harold Martin find finally an agreement that they succeed in making accept by their respective formations. This one in particular envisages to support the candidature of Pierre Frogier for the presidency of the Congrès, which is made thing the July 31st 2007, and to present a joint list for the election of the Sixth Government of New Caledonia the August 6th 2007. This last then includes/understands 11 members including 8 anti-freedom fighters (4 Avenir together and 4 Gathering-UMP) and 3 freedom fighters (2 of the PLAIN and 1 for the Union calédonienne). Harold Martin in is then easily elected president the August 7th, but it directs only one executive provisional having to be satisfied to manage the go concern at least until the August 21st and reduced to its only members anti-freedom fighters, the elected officials FLNKS having resigned as their following of list in order to protest against accounting as spoilt ballot paper of one their votes which had been stuck to a blank vote.

The August 21st 2007, the new government is elected by the Congrès. Making this time the full one with their voices, the freedom fighters obtain an elected official moreover, is 4 out of 11, leaving however a vast majority to the list Avenir together - RPCR carried out by Harold Martin (which obtains 35 votes, as at the time of the poll of the August 6th, that is to say 7 members). Harold Martin thus remains president of the executive, with in more the load of the sector of the Mines and the Fiscalité. It will be thus directly charged with the two sensitive files of the factories of the north and the south, which seem from now on to be released slowly. Group anglo-Switzerland Xstrata, become principal shareholder of Canadian Falconbridge which was engaged since 1998 in the co-financing of the project of factory with Koniambo in north with the Company of the Mines of Peaceful South SMSP, has indeed confirmed in September - October 2007 that it would take part in the project, which was hitherto rather dubious, and fixed with the SMSP like objective 2011 for the startup of the factory. Convinced Sarkozist, it has, like Nicolas Sarkozy, adopted a style of hyperactivity and also decided organized “decentralized” meetings of the government of which the first was held with Hienghène the October 30th 2007.

As a chief of the Future together, it will have to manage a party which had made legislative “referendum” to judge support of the population to the policy followed since 2004, while this movement arises divided with the double candidature in the 1 {{era}} district of Philippe Gomès and Didier Leroux and will have unceasingly to defend near its base the new partnership formed with the party presented up to now like the worst enemy of the Avenir together, the Gathering-UMP.

See too

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • card of Harold Martin on the site of the Congress of New Caledonia
  • official site of the Future together
  • Several articles of the Calédoniennes News of 2006 on Harold Martin
  • Article of the '' Figaro '' on the election of Harold Martin to the presidency of the government

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