Macron declares himself in favor of giving “autonomy” to Corsica within France

The President of France, Emmanuel Macron, today expressed himself in favor of giving “autonomy” to Corsica within the Republic and recognizing the historical and cultural “specificity” of the island in the Constitution.

In a long-awaited speech before the Corsican legislative assembly, dominated by nationalist political blocs, Macron mentioned a “historic moment” to overcome the “incomprehension” and “confrontation” that has dominated relations between the island and the country in the past. State.

“I am in favor of crossing a new stage,” he said, and asked to “build an autonomy” for Corsica that is not “against the State or without the State”, but within the French Republic.

For this process, Macron urged the island politicians to work on a constitutional proposal on the new statute of Corsica, agreed upon with the Government, within a period of six months.

“There are no red lines” for this task, only the ideal of the Republic, which must be “strong enough” to better accommodate the “aspirations” of Corsica and its uniqueness, said the French president.

“It is your wish, I share it and make it mine,” he announced.

The Corsican “singularity”

More specifically, Macron pointed out some of the island’s own needs, such as adapting some metropolitan legislative frameworks that do not work well when applied in the island territory (such as laws on the sea and mountains), or its particular challenges regarding adaptation to climate change.

He also recognized the need to promote the Corsican language so that it has more space both at the level of teaching and learning and its use in public life.

The final objective is, according to the head of state, “to fully anchor Corsica in the Republic” while recognizing “its uniqueness.”

Furthermore, Macron warned against “importing references from other islands or territories of the Mediterranean or Europe”, in order to “build” an autonomy “that is fully Corsican”.

Before her speech, the president of the Corsican Assembly, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, and the head of the regional Executive, Gilles Simeoni, both from the nationalist Femu a Corsica party, spoke in their speech of a historic moment and of hope for Corsica to become “the autonomous territory that it should be”, maintaining its French, European and Mediterranean character.

Weight of the nationalists

The announced commitments are the result of a dialogue that began last year between the Ministry of the Interior and the authorities of Corsica, where the nationalists have been gaining electoral weight and control the Assembly and the island Executive.

This process followed tensions with Paris, with episodes of street violence on the island after the death in prison, in March 2022, of the militant Yvan Colonna, a symbol for the nationalists, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder in 1998. of the prefect (government delegate) Claude Érignac.
80th anniversary of liberation

This is Macron’s fourth visit to Corsica since his arrival at the French Presidency, and this occasion coincides with the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation from Nazi occupation.

In this context, the president today pays tribute in Ajaccio to Fred Scamaroni, a Corsican prefect arrested by the occupiers and who preferred to hang himself in his cell rather than reveal secrets of the resistance, and to Danielle Casanova, deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp, where she died. in 1943.

Corsica’s fight against the Nazi occupation was also remembered with admiration by Macron in his speech in the Assembly, emphasizing the historically “pioneer” spirit and commitment to French republican values ​​of the Corsicans. With EFE

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