2023-07-06 04:02:55
The president of the Corsican executive, Gilles Simeoni (left), in the Corsican Assembly, in Ajaccio, July 5, 2023. PASCAL POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP
At the end of two days of extraordinary session, the Assembly of Corsica failed to agree on a single autonomy project, resulting in two texts on Wednesday July 5 in the evening. These two projects put to the vote in Ajaccio will now be transmitted to the government and to the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron.
At the end of February, during the resumption of discussions on the institutional future of the island, stopped for six months, Emmanuel Macron had repeated that he was ready to include possible developments in his constitutional reform project, at the expense of the Corsican elected officials and the Ministry of the Interior to present to him “a proposal (…) before July 14”. He had also repeated his red lines: maintaining Corsica in the Republic and refusing to create two categories of citizens.
After dozens of hours of discussions behind closed doors and exchanges in the island hemicycle, two texts were therefore put to the vote. The first text was signed and adopted (46 votes out of 63) on Wednesday around midnight by the autonomist majority of the president of the executive council, Gilles Simeoni, the separatist opposition of Core in Fronte and the separatist opposition of the PNC Avenzemu.
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This document calls for the “legal recognition of the Corsican people”, “a co-official status of the Corsican language” and the recognition of “link between the Corsican people and their land” via “resident status”. He would like the political agreement reached to be submitted to a referendum in Corsica and appear in the form of a “title in the Constitution enshrining autonomy”.
Right group anger
This text in fact takes up the main lines of Gilles Simeoni’s report in which he set out his vision of autonomy for Corsica, namely that of a legislative power in all areas for the Assembly of Corsica, except those relating to the regal. The right-wing opposition group Un Soffiu Novu voted against (16 votes) and Corsica Libera’s only elected separatist, Josepha Giacometti, abstained.
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The second text, a motion by the opposition group U Soffiu Novu, calls for a simple “power of adaptation” French laws with Corsican specificities, without autonomous management of education and health and without transfer of taxation. It was rejected by two nationalist groups (autonomist and separatist majority, 39 votes out of 63). This opposition aroused the anger of the right-wing group, which criticized the autonomist majority of Gilles Simeoni for not having respected a ” a pact of non-agression “.
In total, six proposals for institutional development for the island had been presented before arriving at these two texts. These two projects must now be submitted to the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, who had called on Corsican elected officials to present “the most unanimous proposals possible”.
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