He re-iterated Vanuatu's support for the Matignon Accords, and soothed French concern over alleged discrimination against francophone ni-Vanuatu. Relations slowly began to improve. In 1991, French academic Elise Huffer wrote that Lini had, "it seems, deliberately sought to provoke France so as to make it look responsible for all the archipelago's problems, and so as to justify a policy of submission (if not repression) of the indigenous francophone population". Elections in 1991 saw Lini voted out of office, and the francophone, pro-French Union of Moderate Parties come to power, led by a new Prime Minister, Maxime Carlot Korman. The change in the ni-Vanuatu government heralded a normalisation of relations between Paris and Port-Vila. Maxime Carlot Korman was the first francophone Prime Minister of Vanuatu. He "reversed [the country's] unequivocal support for the Kanak National Liberation Front in New Caledonia [and] its systematic enmity towards France". Francophones held power until 1998. In March 2008, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Franco–ni-Vanuatu relations had "never been so good" as at present. At that time, France was Vanuatu's second largest aid provider, behind Australia.