Less than a month before the first round of the presidential elections (April 10), Emmanuel Macron gave his word (somewhat “opportunistic” for some): Corsica would get more concessions from the central government “until autonomy is achieved”.
The number one of the Elysée, after the protests, including violent ones, that have taken place on the island in recent days, decided to try a reconciliation and promised also through the explicit words of the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin that Paris will ease the its strength . As an act of good faith, it was also decided to suspend the sentence of Yvan Colonna, the Corsican independent who had been sentenced to life imprisonment (for the murder of Prefect Claude Erignac in 1998) and seriously injured in an attack in Arles prison. last March 2, an event that gave rise to a new flareup of clashes and protests.
For Gilles Simeoni, President of the region and advocate of autonomy, the words of the Paris government are “important words that open perspective, but they are words that now need to be followed up and made concrete”.
Instead, the exponents of the Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC), which encapsulates the extreme fringes of independence, are not at all happy. In fact, they promise new protests and even fear armed revolts and uprisings, convinced that Macron’s concessions are only a “sedative” and determined to achieve the full goal of independence from France. “If the French state still remains deaf say the separatists in a statement published by the CorseMatin newspaper the sacrifice of the youth can only provoke an appropriate response on our part.”
And yet Paris is convinced that it can keep the forces of independence in check by granting greater autonomy. Minister Darmanin himself affirmed that “the future of the courses will remain entirely in the French Republic”.
The Corsican issue obviously interferes with the election campaign for the Elysée. According to Marine Le Pen, presidential candidate of the Rassemblement National, “the transition from the murder of a prefect to the promise of autonomy is a disastrous message.”
For Eric Zemmour, also a farright exponent, this is “a lowly electoral maneuver”.
After all, according to Valérie Pécresse, leader of the rightwing moderate Républicains, Macron has done nothing but “give in to violence”.
(Uniononline / lf)
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