The conflicting attachment of Corsica to France, which conquered the island in 1769, could evolve in a positive way thanks to the agreement reached yesterday morning on an autonomy that would be recognized in the French Constitution itself and specified in an organic law.
The political commitment came during a dinner in Paris, at the headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior, as a corollary of months of dialogue. The meeting, which lasted almost five hours, was attended by Minister Gérald Darmanin – tasked by President Emmanuel Macron to manage the Cors problem – and eight island political leaders of all tendencies, including the head of the Cors Executive, l ‘autonomist Gilles Simeoni.
Darmanin congratulated himself on the pact. He spoke of a broad consensus, although not unanimous. The most ambitious autonomists and pro-independence people see it as too timid a step.
The new insular status must be ratified by the Corsican Assembly and then by the population. According to the minister, the “red lines” set by the Elysee have been respected. The existence of a heartland people as such is not recognized, although it is “its own interests linked to its Mediterranean insularity, to its historical, linguistic and cultural community that has developed a unique relationship with its land “. Neither is the so-called “resident status”, an old nationalist claim, which would require a minimum of years of residence in Corsica before being able to acquire real estate properties. The Government believes that this would be unconstitutional, because it would violate equal rights among the French.
The future statute of autonomy will give the Corsican Assembly legislative powers – to write laws and regulations – in limited areas, such as urban planning, as long as they do not violate the general principles of the Republic. Corsica will also have the capacity to adapt the laws of the Republic to its local peculiarity. There will be a control and arbitration mechanism in charge of the Council of State and the Constitutional Council.
The successful conclusion of the negotiation, which is known as “the Beauvau process” (headquarters of the Ministry of the Interior), was greeted with moderate optimism by Simeoni. He used a football simile and said that he is “in the semi-finals” and “now we have to win the semi-final and the final”.
The contentious heart was reactivated following the death, two years ago, of Yvan Colonna, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of prefect Claude Érignac in 1998. Colonna died after being attacked in prison by an Islamist prisoner. The demonstrations and riots that followed led to the emergence of a new generation of radical nationalists who blamed the State for not having protected Colonna as it was their duty. The former most active terrorist group, the National Front for the Liberation of Hearts (FLNC), once again committed attacks against French properties on the continent.
Corsican autonomy will not give co-officiality to the Corsican language, another of the historical claims of island nationalism. Macron, like his predecessors, accepts bilingualism but not co-officiality because he considers that “French is the language of the Republic”, as the Constitution says, and a factor of national cohesion that must be preserved whether yes or not .
Several leaders of the Republicans (LR, traditional right) warned of the risk of opening the Pandora’s box of autonomy and the transfer of powers, which may have imitators. The president of Brittany, in fact, asked that recognition not be limited to Corsica. Loïg Chesnais-Girard demanded new advances “for a country dying of centralism”.
Darmanin’s role as a negotiator in the Corsican issue is revealing of his strong position in the Government and of the idea that the unrest in Corsica is above all a challenge to public order and a terrorist threat. The 41-year-old Minister of the Interior, to whom presidential ambitions are attributed, is also struggling with the serious problem of Mayotte – an archipelago in the Indian Ocean -, overwhelmed by the migratory flow, and with that of New Caledonia, islands in the Pacific south In the latter case, it is a territory without departmental status. In recent years, Paris accepted three independence referendums in which the no vote won, although the issue is not resolved.
