A warning that sounds like a threat. Wednesday, in a press release sent to our colleagues from Corsica-Martin, a group posing as the FLNC – the National Liberation Front of Corsica – threatened to resume armed struggle. “Today’s street battles will be those of tomorrow’s night maquis. The independence group denounces in particular the “contemptuous denial” of the state in the face of “the aspirations of the Corsican people”. What does this message mean and what credit to give it? Elements of response with Thierry Dominici, doctor in political science at the University of Bordeaux, specialist in Corsican nationalism.
How do you interpret the “threat” of the FLNC’s return?
This is not the first time that the FLNC has broadcast this type of message threatening to take up arms again. Before the last regional elections, for example, it had been the same. It looks like, in my eyes, a kind of trial balloon to see how the message is perceived, especially among young people who are currently very mobilized. If the statement takes, that it has an echo, they will continue. If not, we move on.
What is the echo of the FLNC today in Corsica?
We must not forget that the last Corsican armed group, the FLNC of October 22, laid down its arms in 2017. The FLNC Union des Combattants had done so three years earlier. But if the FLNC has demilitarized, it has not dematerialized. A number of yesterday’s fighters are now engaged in politics, I find it hard to imagine them putting the hood back on! In the collective imagination, the FLNC remains associated with the rebel soldier, with the adventure itself. The population adheres when it comes to denouncing injustices, such as this assassination attempt or simply the non-respect of the law. On the other hand, the question of independence created a much greater split within the population.
Who do you think is hiding behind this message?
That’s a very good question, and I’m not sure we really know. In the heyday of the armed struggle, the state knew very well which group or dissident group it had to deal with. We didn’t necessarily know the identities of the members, but there was a kind of identifier that made it possible to characterize each other. It doesn’t seem to be the case here, it’s much more obscure. Are they are five, ten or twenty? Impossible to know at the moment.
Could the FLNC be reborn from its ashes, carried in particular by the youth, very active in this movement?
No, I don’t really believe in this hypothesis. Firstly because young people have little or no knowledge of this movement, so there is no nostalgia. The current movement is very politicized, they voted massively for the nationalists and the separatists and find it difficult to understand that things are not progressing. But behind their rejection of the state, they denounce above all their downgrading: today, finding a job or decent housing in Corsica is impossible. This youth movement is, in my eyes, closer to certain Basque movements or even black-blocks, including in the techniques. They are dressed in black whereas the FLNC would be in fatigues. They aim at the same targets as them, use molotov cocktails, petanque balls… This threat looks more like an attempt to recover the youth.