More than 500 people demonstrated on Sunday March 27 in a tense atmosphere in front of a CRS barracks near Bastia at the call of independence organizations which accuse some CRS of having sung the Marseillaise on the day of the funeral of activist Yvan Colonna.
This call to protest in front of the Furiani barracks, south of Bastia, was launched by the pro-independence movements Core in Fronte, Corsica Libera (a minority in the Corsican Assembly) and the nationalist student unions, which are the main drivers of the mobilization after the death of Yvan Colonna, who was assaulted in prison while serving a life sentence for the murder of Prefect Claude Erignac.
Shortly after the start of the rally in the early evening, a few dozen young people shook the gates of the cantonment, lighting a fire, provoking tear gas from the CRS, noted an Agence France-Presse correspondent ( AFP).
Then, around fifty hooded demonstrators threw stones, smoke bombs and Molotov cocktails at the police.
A sign in Corsican “French shit” (Français de merde) was also hung, according to an AFPTV journalist.
“Colonial hatred”
Since Saturday, nationalist circles have been outraged on social media in a video allegedly shot in the CRS cantonment of Furiani on the day of the funeral where a Marseillaise is heard without distinguishing those present. The Corsican MP Jean-Félix Aquaviva (Libertés et Territoires group) sees this as an example on Twitter from “pure hatred” and ask “immediately accountable to the government”.
For the autonomous party Femu a Corsica of the president of the executive council of Corsica Gilles Simeoni, who did not call to demonstrate, however, this is a “pure colonial hatred”.
Contacted by AFP, the police information and communication service (Sicop) did not wish to “communication on this video”.
According to a police union source, “this company was on rest and they ate outside because the weather was right. As usual, they sang many songs including La Marseillaise, but unrelated to Yvan Colonna’s funeral..
Another union source said: “The songs are real but no connotation of anything”another local source having affirmed that no word against Yvan Colonna was heard.