They want to take over from the old nationalist groups. A new clandestine band called “Ghjuventu Clandestina Corsa” (Corsican clandestine youth) announced its creation this Tuesday evening in a press release sent to the daily Corse-Matin.
Presenting itself as “the armed wing of a revolutionary movement”, this group whose signature, “GCC”, is associated with around twenty arson attacks that have occurred in recent months on the Mediterranean island, claims to be walking “in the footsteps of the FLNC” (Corsican National Liberation Front).
According to the GCC, this clandestine armed movement for the independence of Corsica, “seems to be detached from the struggle”. “So it’s up to us, the Corsican youth, to take it back in order to stand up to the French state and its contempt,” reads this three-page press release.
The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) takes the case very seriously and announced earlier in the day that it was seizing “the entire GCC file”, i.e. 14 cases of degradation by fire opened in recent months, in which appeared the “GCC” tag.
The latest is the investigation into a building under construction with 25 apartments which was targeted by an arson attack on Saturday evening in Pietrosella (Corse-du-Sud) and where inscriptions calling for nationalist armed struggle were found.
Since June, the acronym GCC, which initially remained mysterious, has been discovered on a dozen villas or burning machines in Corsica.
The group claims 17 actions against second homes, buildings under construction, construction companies and tourist establishments since the appearance of this acronym, on August 4, 2022, on the facade of a villa in Bastelicaccia (Corse-du- South) targeted by arson.
The island has known for a year a multiplication of arson attacks mainly targeting second homes of people not residing on the island, often with the presence of tags, but without official claim. Campsites, beach restaurants, construction companies and construction machinery were also damaged by intentional fires.
Corsican lessons and “resident status”
Among its demands, the GCC demands “immediately and unconditionally” the “release of Charles Pieri”, a 72-year-old Corsican nationalist figure suspected of having led the FLNC.
The latter was indicted on December 9 in Paris, in particular for terrorist criminal association and imprisoned within the framework of a judicial investigation relating to the threat of a return to the armed struggle of the FLNC.
“Clandestine Corsican Youth” also calls for “the rapprochement of political prisoners”, the establishment of a “resident status” after “five years of permanent residence” on the island, as well as “the truth about the assassination of ‘Yvan Colonna’, a nationalist activist who was serving a life sentence for his role in the assassination of the prefect of Corsica Claude Erignac when he was fatally attacked in March 2022 in the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). It also requires “compulsory” Corsican lessons.
The announcement of this new clandestine group comes the day after the arrival in Corsica of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the prefect Erignac and “reach out” to the Corsicans to “write a new page for the island.