Questioned Monday April 4 during the morning of France Inter, Emmanuel Macron sounded the death knell of the meeting which was to be held Friday April 8 at the Ministry of the Interior intended to open “a process with a historical vocation of discussions” between the State and Corsica, according to the report established on March 16 at the end of the meetings between the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and the elected islanders. The demonstration which was held on Sunday April 3 in Ajaccio in “homage” to Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, erected as a martyr of the nationalist cause since his fatal attack by a former prisoner -jihadist, was one demonstration too many.
Once again, after all the nationalist families and their representatives, including the president of the executive council, Gilles Simeoni, had marched behind a banner “Assassin’s Creed” (“French murderous state”), it ended on the outskirts of the prefecture with violent clashes with the police which continued until late in the evening. This time, the candidate president has put the kibosh. “Calm and a return to order are a prerequisite for everything and what I have seen again this weekend is unacceptable, unacceptable, including with political leaders at the head of the processioncondemned Mr. Macron. So there will be no discussion with people who behave like that. »
Shortly afterwards, in a letter to the President of the Corsican Executive, Mr. Darmanin said “forced to postpone next Friday’s meeting”. “In the light of the last two weeks, it must be recognized that the conditions for a normalized dialogue are hardly met”underlines the Minister of the Interior, recalling that “nearly 43 actions or demonstrations took place, almost all punctuated by violent outbursts, in the presence of elected officials who were nevertheless supposed to participate in the discussions planned in Paris”.
Simeoni challenged
In the immediate future, Mr. Simeoni did not wish to react to the announcement of this “postponement”, which, in any case, puts an end to the desire to open a new round of discussions on the future statutory, economic and social status of the island before the presidential election. Some of his relatives nevertheless deplored this halt. Quoted by Corse-MatinMP (Liberties and Territories) Jean-Félix Acquaviva, National Secretary of Femu a Corsica, Mr Simeoni’s party, “the president and the government are afraid of the criticisms made by their opponents and the French public opinion of a loss of authority”. His colleague Paul-André Colombani sees only one ” pretext “, while the third Corsican nationalist MP, Michel Castellani, deplores this ” bad news “.
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