The National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC), the most radical branch of the independence movement on the island, claimed responsibility this Monday for the attacks with explosives carried out on the night of Sunday to Monday, against 17 second homes owned by French people from the mainland and against an old tax office in the capital, Ajaccio.
The message in which the FLNC took responsibility for the actions, sent as usual to the Corse-Matin newspaper, was brief but forceful. Headed by the acronym, in large characters, of the historic terrorist group, the note simply stated that “we do not have a common destiny with France.” And he concluded with this slogan: “France Out.”
The attacks are the response of the hardest core of Corsican separatism to President Emmanuel Macron’s recent offer to grant broader autonomy to Corsica and amend the Constitution of the Republic to explicitly recognize Corsican historical and cultural uniqueness. The head of state raised the proposal during a speech in the Assembly of Corsica, on September 28, and a few days later during a speech before the Constitutional Council, in Paris.
The reaction of the FLNC also represents a very direct warning to the head of the island’s Executive, the autonomist Gilles Simeoni. This, who has been very critical of the closure of Paris for decades, welcomed with moderate hope Macron’s new attitude, in which he saw “a will to build, in dialogue with the State and within the French Republic, the present and the future.”
Attacks on second homes have been one of the FLNC’s preferred methods to show their rejection of what they consider French “colonialism”, guilty, in their eyes, of real estate speculation that harms the native population above all. There is a broad consensus among autonomists and non-violent independence supporters that Paris must accept the so-called “resident status,” which would make it much more difficult for non-residents to acquire property. In his speech before the Corsican Assembly, Macron ruled out this option because, in his opinion, it would involve discrimination between French citizens. The president is also against the co-official nature of Corsican, although he approves of bilingualism and the promotion of the islanders’ language.
