Corsica’s ports and airports are completely blocked due to a spontaneous social movement. This situation is the result of differences between the Corsican Community and the State over the management of the island’s ports and airports.
Thursday morning, Alexandre Patrou, secretary general for Corsican affairs (Sgac) who represented the prefect of Corsica during the extraordinary general assembly of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), spoke on the project of creating two open joint unions (SMO) port and airport by the end of the year.
“A significant legal risk”
These SMOs should grant concessions to the island CCI so that it can continue to manage the island’s ports and airports from January 1, 2025. But according to Alexandre Patrou, this arrangement would present “a significant legal risk”.
“It is a declaration of war and I tell you again, for me it is not negotiable, there will be no international groups which will manage the ports and airports of Corsica,” said Gilles Simeoni, the autonomist president of the island’s executive council. He also denounced “the decision that the State has just announced, on the sly, without warning us and by denying its commitment and its word”.
A strike in direct response
Without waiting for clarification from the State, the CCI unions, led by the Corsican workers’ union (STC), immediately launched a strike movement which led to the blockade of the four airports and six ports on Thursday afternoon. island and hundreds of travelers.
“All the ports and airports of Corsica have been blocked for several hours by the STC,” Laurent Filippi, STC union delegate at the port of Bastia, told AFP. “There is no longer anything taking off, nothing landing and nothing leaving or returning from the ports,” added the union delegate.
A story of big money
Behind a seemingly technical conflict between the State and the community of Corsica lies another financial difficulty. Gilles Simeoni is in fact demanding an additional 50 million euros from the State to compensate for inflation not taken into account in the sum allocated by the State to ensure territorial continuity between the island and the continent. “The reindexing is not given and it is due, it is not begging to remind it,” Gilles Simeoni declared on Friday.
“If this allocation does not occur, we will be unable to maintain the execution of public service delegation contracts in the maritime and air sectors,” he warned. This would mean “hundreds of direct jobs threatened” at Air Corsica, Air France, Corsica Linea, La Méridionale and “thousands of indirect jobs, risks of blocking ports and airports”, he said. added again.