2023-09-28 11:30:39
Emmanuel Macron proposed this Thursday, September 28 to Corsica “autonomy in the Republic”, warning that this “historic moment” will not take place “without” or “against” the French State. “The status quo would be the failure of us all,” insisted the President of the Republic, coming to close 18 months of discussions which began after the explosion of island violence in 2022, after the death of independence activist Yvan Colonna, attacked in prison where he was serving a life sentence for the assassination of Prefect Erignac in 1998. “We must move forward and for that we need the entry of Corsica into our Constitution,” he began. Before launching: “Let us have the audacity to build autonomy for Corsica in the Republic”. Speaking in Ajaccio before the Corsican Assembly, controlled by the nationalists, Emmanuel Macron however warned: “It will not be autonomy against the State, nor autonomy without the State”.
He then responded, often indirectly, to the main fundamental demands set out by the nationalists in a resolution adopted by 75% of the votes of the Corsican Assembly on July 5. At the request for co-officiality of the Corsican language, the president only specified that he wanted it “to be better taught and placed at the heart of the life of each Corsican”, via the creation of a “service public of the teaching of bilingualism”. On the desire for “resident status”, to fight against land dispossession, Emmanuel Macron recognized that there was an “unsustainable real estate and land situation”, calling for the establishment of “devices, particularly tax ones”, to combat real estate speculation. But this “while respecting our European law”, he added. Concerning the nationalist desire to see the notion of “Corsican people” included in the Constitution, he only proposed that an “island, historical, linguistic and cultural community” be recognized there.
“Satisfied and careful”
Finally, on the wish to entrust legislative power to the Assembly of Corsica, the Head of State called for “making the right of adaptation and the right of authorization simpler and more effective”, declaring himself “in favor ” so that the island can “define standards on transferred materials”. But this “under the authority of the Council of State”, he specified. Concretely, he gave “six months” to Corsican political groups, from separatists to the right, to reach an “agreement” with the government leading to a “constitutional and organic text” which could then be presented in Paris.
The wait was immense on the Isle of Beauty, led by the nationalists for eight years. “Corsica is holding its breath,” the autonomist president of the Corsican Assembly, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, told him before this speech which the head of state himself described as a “historic moment”. “The status of autonomy that we want is part of the French Republic,” promised Gilles Simeoni, autonomist president of the executive of Corsica, welcoming the head of state. This autonomous status must be “that of a singular island, which is neither confused with overseas nor with Kanakia” (Editor’s note: New Caledonia), he insisted.
The head of state’s speech seems to have been received with a certain optimism by nationalist elected officials. I am “satisfied and cautious”, commented Jean-Christophe Angelini, leader of the opposition autonomists. “We have a President of the Republic who still opened the game,” also conceded Jean-Félix Acquaviva, of Femu a Corsica, the autonomist party of Gille Simeoni. Less enthusiastic, Paul-Félix Benedetti, leader of the elected representatives of the independence party Core in Fronte, estimated on there are no more red lines, it must go towards the deliberation of 05/07″. Jean-Martin Mondoloni, leader of the regional right-wing opposition, told AFP that “the president knew how to find the right words”.
After this political component, the president paid tribute to the Corsican resistance fighters on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the island in 1943. At noon, at the citadel of Ajaccio, he saluted the memory of the Corsican resistance fighter Fred Scamaroni, before going to greet that of Danielle Casanova, a Corsican communist resistance fighter who died during deportation to Auschwitz. “We come to celebrate heroines and heroes so that we never forget them,” he told children from a nearby school, before a crowd bath in good humor. The Head of State then had to go to Bastia, for an arms training in the presence of military units whose history is linked to the liberation of Corsica, before joining Bonifacio (South Corsica), to pay tribute to the resistance fighter Albert Ferracci, at the college which now bears his name. Corsica was the first French territory liberated, on October 4, 1943, thanks to a popular insurrection and the help of French troops from Africa.
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