Riots in Corsica
France is ready to grant the Corsicans their long-awaited autonomy
Demonstration against the attack on Yvan Colonna in Ajaccio in early March
© ANDBZ/ABACA / Picture Alliance
For decades, Corsican separatists have tried to break their island off from France by force. After one of their heads was attacked while in custody, protests broke out – and they also had an effect in Paris.
Corsica, the rugged “Island of Beauty”, is hit by half a dozen winds from all directions: sometimes they are humid and hot like the Scirocco, sometimes cold and dry like the Tramontana. Greeks, Cathars, Romans, Etruscans and Vandals settled on the island, it once belonged to Byzantium, Franconia and Genoa. In the middle of the 18th century, the Corsicans declared themselves independent, only to become French after briefly belonging to England. In the case of Asterix and Obelix, the residents only come off so moderately well as respectable knifemen. The most famous Corsican is Napoleon Bonaparte.
More than 100 injured in demonstration
In the present, the ongoing dispute between the Mediterranean island and the central government in Paris is flaring up again. Molotov cocktails and firebombs have been flying in several cities for days. There have been countless injuries, both among demonstrators and among the police and journalists. Most recently, a peaceful demonstration of several thousand people in northeastern Bastia got out of control. Around 100 people were injured, including almost 80 security forces. The police used tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators.
The riots were triggered by an attack on the imprisoned Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna. A captured jihadist attacked the 61-year-old in Arles prison at the beginning of March and seriously injured him. The nationalist has been in a coma since then. In Corsica, he is revered by many as a hero in the struggle for independence. In 1998, the Colonna murdered the prefect of Corsica and has been in prison since 2003. Demonstrators accuse the French authorities of not transferring Colonna to a prison in Corsica, contrary to Colonna’s request.
Corsican separatists have been fighting for independence from France since the 1970s. The underground organization FLNC laid down its arms in 2014, around the same time that moderate nationalists gained political importance. The mainland French right of the former Front National (now Rassemblement National), Marine Le Pen’s party, has recently been very successful in elections, although it is explicitly opposed to more autonomy for Corsica.
The issue of greater self-reliance has become a campaign issue as a result of the violent protests. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin even announced far-reaching concessions. “We are ready to go as far as autonomy,” he said in a newspaper interview. However, he also said that “what this autonomy looks like” needs to be discussed. The prerequisite is that peace returns to the island, according to the Minister of the Interior. “Under the pressure of explosive devices and a massive police presence, there can be no honest dialogue.”
Attack an “act of terrorism”
But Darmanin also showed understanding for the protests. “If there is such a bad attack in a prison, then you can look at it in a way that we are responsible for it,” he said. He described the jihadist prisoner’s attack on Colonna as a “terrorist act” that needed to be investigated.
The advocates of greater autonomy for Corsica are calling, among other things, for the island’s special status to be enshrined in the constitution, for the existence of a “Corsican people” to be recognized and for imprisoned independence fighters to be transferred to prisons on the island in Corsica. The opposition accuses the government of collapsing in the face of the recent riots on the island.
The right-wing populist presidential candidate Le Pen accused President Emmanuel Macron of “political clientelism”. “Corsica must remain French,” she wrote on Twitter. Right-wing candidate Valerie Pécresse took the same line, saying the government would be brought to its knees by violence. The French will elect their next president on April 10th.
swell: DPA, AFP, “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung“