Maurice Ponga [SEP] place of birth
Maurice Ponga
Maurice Ponga (born 5 June 1947 in Kouaoua, New Caledonia) is a French politician and Member of the European Parliament (MEP). He was elected in the 2009 European election for the Overseas constituency.
Ponga is a Melanesian (Kanak), but unlike some Kanaks, he opposes New Caledonia's independence from France and is a member of The Rally-UMP, a major anti-independence party. He has represented the party, known as RPCR until 2002, in the Congress of New Caledonia
due to a provision in the electoral law which splits the constituency into three sub-constituencies. As a result, she was not entitled to a seat in the Atlantic subsection, but Maurice Ponga won the seat in the Pacific subsection.
She was named Secretary of State for Overseas Territories in the François Fillon government on 23 June 2009, becoming a minister in November that year. The nomination of a Guadeloupe native to this position is important since Guadeloupe was the epicentre of the 2009 French Caribbean general strikes.
She is