Lhe Corsican elected officials and the government were due to discuss, Friday, April 8 in Paris, the institutional future of the island. Monday April 4, the meeting was postponed due to the violence that occurred on Sunday during the demonstration in support of the family of Yvan Colonna, we learned from the entourage of Gérald Darmanin. The entourage of the Minister of the Interior explained that “the conditions for a normalized dialogue were hardly met”. A letter to this effect was sent to Gilles Simeoni, autonomist president of the executive council of Corsica, it was added.
The announcement of the postponement comes after President-elect Emmanuel Macron called the violence in Corsica “unacceptable” on Sunday and said there would be “no discussion” without “returning to pre-order”. This April 8 meeting in Paris was announced by Gilles Simeoni but never confirmed by the Ministry of the Interior. On Sunday, a demonstration for Yvan Colonna, convicted of the murder of Prefect Claude Érignac and fatally assaulted in prison by another detainee last month, escalated into violent clashes in Ajaccio. Gilles Simeoni participated in this event.
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Other violence between demonstrators and law enforcement has also been reported in Bastia. “Over the past two weeks, 43 actions or demonstrations have taken place, almost all of them interspersed with violent outbursts, in the presence of elected officials who are nevertheless supposed to participate in the discussions planned in Paris”, argued Gérald Darmanin’s entourage. “In total, nearly 60 injured, both among the police and demonstrators, who have not been the subject of any public condemnation,” added the same source. “These events are unacceptable both for democracy, which cannot be complacent towards violence, and for the Corsicans themselves who disapprove of these events”, she continued.
During his visit to Corsica from March 16 to 18, shortly after the death of Yvan Colonna, the Minister of the Interior had promised to open negotiations “on the first week of April.” ‘all Corsican issues’, including ‘the institutional evolution towards a status of autonomy remaining to be specified’. He had also promised the “prompt rapprochement in Corsica in the coming weeks” of Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, the last members of the “Commando Érignac” still imprisoned. The two men, imprisoned in Poissy (Yvelines), signed a transfer order at Borgo prison on Friday.
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