The tension was palpable on Wednesday in Bastia. A demonstration, organized six months after the death in prison of the Corsican nationalist activist Yvan Colonna, brought together some 150 people and was peppered with clashes between the police and a few dozen demonstrators.
This small gathering, on the initiative of the youth movement of the independence party Corsica Libera, aimed to demand the recognition of the Corsican people, the release of political prisoners and to demand “justice for Yvan Colonna”.
A burnt French flag
After a calm start to the demonstration, tension rose between around thirty demonstrators and the CRS, with Molotov cocktails fired at the police who responded with tear gas. A French flag was burned and a banner “status francese assassinu” (“French state assassin” in Corsica) was also deployed on the gates of the prefecture.
Calm returned around 8 p.m. without any arrests at this stage, said the Bastia prosecution. A few hours earlier, the police had intercepted five to six bags containing painter’s outfits and hammers, transported by a group of young people who fled, the same source said.
The death of Yvan Colonna had provoked several weeks of often violent protests in Corsica last winter. Many Corsicans believe that the activist would not have been fatally attacked in his prison in Arles, where he was serving a life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Erignac, if he had been transferred to an island prison, as he asked.
A visit judged as “an umpteenth provocation”
Since then, the government has started discussions with the island’s elected officials on the future of the Corsican community. This summer, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin had argued that there would be “no taboo” in particular on an evolution towards autonomy, while setting two red lines: a Corsica which remains “in the Republic” and not create “two types of citizens” on the island.
The Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, who was once one of Yvan Colonna’s lawyers, is expected in Ajaccio on Thursday then Bastia on Friday for his first visit to Corsica as minister. For Core in Fronte, this trip represents “an umpteenth provocation, of a government policy, which has only condescension and disrepute for Corsica”, wrote the independence party in an open letter.