Fifteen lawmakers have resigned from French Polynesia’s ruling Tavini Huiraatira party, forming a new breakaway group and leaving the territorial assembly without a single party majority, a development that has sharply reshaped the legislature and deepened a rift over the pace of independence from France.
The split emerged during the assembly’s first administrative sitting on Friday, when the 15 defectors unveiled a new group calling itself “A Fano Tia” (Stay the course). The breakaway is led by 25‑year‑old Tematai Le Gayic, who presented the faction as a younger alternative to Tavini’s “old guard.” In a visual cue of the political fracture, A Fano Tia members wore white to the sitting, a deliberate contrast to Tavini’s official light blue.
The departures reduce the remaining Tavini faction, headed by 81‑year‑old former President Oscar Temaru and Assembly Speaker Antony Géros, to 22 seats in the 57‑member body. The new arithmetic leaves no grouping in outright control: A Fano Tia holds 15 seats, the pro‑autonomy opposition Tapura Huiraatira has 16, and there are four independents. The shift means Brotherson’s allies, though influential, no longer command an automatic majority in the chamber.
President Moetai Brotherson — himself a relative of Temaru by marriage — has publicly backed a gradual path to independence, proposing a 10 to 15‑year timetable and urging patience. “This choice can be neither imposed nor rushed,” he said, a stance that appears to align more closely with the pragmatism signalled by A Fano Tia. Temaru’s wing, by contrast, favours a shorter, more confrontational course toward Paris, a strategic and generational divide that underpinned the breakaway.
Despite the tensions and heated exchanges between the two Tavini factions at Friday’s sitting, both sides have officially ruled out moving a no‑confidence motion against Brotherson’s government. Speaker Géros vowed to let Brotherson “carry the weight of his presidency until 2028,” and Tapura pledged not to exploit the rupture to force instability, though it lamented that the assembly’s time had been “confiscated by internal bickering.” The next territorial elections are scheduled for 2028.
Practically, the immediate mechanics of governance were only partially unsettled. Key committee chairs — including finance and education — remain with Tavini, while Tapura secured control of health and solidarity committees, preserving continuity on several fronts even as the political map is redrawn. Analysts say the new configuration will force more negotiation and coalition‑building within the assembly and could slow or reshape any unilateral moves toward independence, making the coming months a test of whether the new A Fano Tia will act as a distinct political force or realign with broader pro‑independence strategy.
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