France is a colonial master in New Caledonia. That's not in doubt.
It's just that it's a liked one by the majority of population. Three referendums down, and it's basically one ethnic group voting to secede in the name of the nationalist socialist ideology of envy of its betters, and everyone else voting to stay. That one nationalist and socialist ethnic minority is violent and intolerant towards outsiders. It's also so phenomenally low IQ on average that it actually generated an idea that a great way to protest losing referendum after referendum would be to... sabotage all the food retailers, preferably by burning them down after looting them. It's the same problem that Zulus have in South Africa. Low average IQ population, incapable of grasping consequences of their actions keep terrorizing the very people trying to make their communities a better place, following a nationalist socialist leadership.
New Caledonia will actually need to rebuild food distribution while relying on French for food aid now because of them.
I'm sure that's going to make the majority like the violent minority literally causing localized risk of starvation more, and hate the French that will have to feed the populace less. It's going to work somehow. How? Why would you ask, that involves logic, a tool of oppression by colonialist, white man loving fascism.
In before far leftists start screaming that nationalism and socialism being opposites. The guilty party is literally called "Kanak Socialist Nationalist Liberation Front". Because it's just that. It's ethnosupremacist, socialist and nationalist party. And like its ideological brethren across the globe, it's highly xenophobic, highly prone to terrorism and primarily liked by populations where median IQ is too low to grasp abstract concepts like "if I do X, what will be the likely consequences of it?" That's why Zulus keep looting stores opened by Pakistani families to serve them, right after publicly raping said Pakistani families to death. In the name of the exact same ideology.
French are probably the worst colonial masters to have. Just look at Haiti as a good example as to why. But replacing them with yet another nationalist socialist party who's rank and file are the typical low IQ high aggression mobsters is a recipe for something far, far worse. Which is why majority people voted against them several times. In spite of campaigns of terror. And these mobsters are easily riled by professional agitators on social media.
My personal favourite to come out of this mess is the fact that Azerbaijan is now paying French back for the support of Armenia (largely due to influential Armenian diaspora in France). Yup, protesters/looters actually supposedly waved some Azerbaijani flags in New Caledonia, half a world away. And Azeris are running a weird forum for "victims of French colonization" or something among those lines. As far as geopolitical vengeance goes, that's a pretty good shot after the mess with Nagorno-Karabakh and French support for it. You help our enemies take over our territory? We're going to help your enemies take yours now.