French and Corsican officials strike deal in ‘decisive step’ towards island’s autonomy

Half a century after the start of Corsica’s armed nationalist struggle, the Mediterranean island inched closer to autonomy in the early hours of Tuesday as officials hammered out a deal on a proposed constitutional revision after marathon talks at the interior ministry in Paris.  

The draft text provides for the “recognition of an autonomous status” for Corsica “within the (French) Republic”, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin told reporters following the talks. It meets a six-month deadline set by Macron during a visit to the island last year, when he became the first French president to openly endorse “a form of autonomy” for Corsica.   

Corsica’s proposed new status, the draft reads, “takes into account its own interests linked to its Mediterranean insularity, (and) to its historical, linguistic and cultural community, which has developed singular ties to its land.”

Both sides also agreed that “laws and regulations can be adapted” on the island, under the supervision of France’s top courts, Darmanin added, pointing to a form of legislative power for Corsican officials, the scope of which will be detailed in a forthcoming “organic law”.  

The interior minister said that registered voters in Corsica would be consulted on the plan. So will the island’s regional assembly in Ajaccio, which is currently dominated by nationalists, some of whom advocate full independence from France.   

Speaking shortly after the minister, Gilles Simeoni, a moderate nationalist and the head of Corsica’s regional administration, hailed a “decisive step” on the path to autonomy.   

“The principle of a legislative power, submitted to oversight from the Constitutional Council, has clearly been accepted,” he said, acknowledging that both sides still needed to spell out how devolved powers would operate.  

“We’re in the semi-finals,” Simeoni added. “We still need to win the semi-final – and then the final.”   

Corsican ‘community’ or ‘people’? 

Corsican nationalists, who include both separatists and advocates of autonomy, have long clamoured for greater powers for the island, which has been part of France since it was purchased from its Genoese rulers in 1768. Their demands include official recognition of the Corsican language, which is closer to Italian dialects than French, as well as protection from outsiders buying up their land.   

Such topics remain highly sensitive in France, where politicians routinely tout the need to protect the country’s unity and national identity, harking back to the oft-quoted Jacobin slogan from 1793: “The Republic is one and indivisible”.  

In that respect, the push for Corsican autonomy signals a major shift for both the Mediterranean island and France’s Fifth Republic, says Thierry Dominici, a political analyst and Corsica expert at the University of Bordeaux in southwest France, for whom the government’s willingness to devolve limited powers to Ajaccio is in step with the decentralisation witnessed elsewhere in Europe.  

The draft text agreed on Tuesday “involves recognising a Corsican cultural specificity and, more concretely, granting the island the power to adapt legislation to its specific needs”, he said, noting that some of France’s overseas territories in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans already enjoy specific statuses and powers.  

“This evolution demonstrates that the Fifth Republic need not be as centralised, nor as Jacobin, as is commonly assumed,” he added. “Even France’s unitary state is slowly leaning towards a form of decentralisation, like Spain, Italy and the UK.” 

However, granting Corsica a special status in the French constitution will require the backing of both the National Assembly and the Senate, as well as a three-fifths majority in the combined chambers – making it a tall order for Macron’s minority government, which controls neither house of parliament.   

The far-right National Rally party has already pledged to reject the move, accusing Macron of attempting to “deconstruct the French nation”. As for the conservative Les Républicains, which dominate the Senate, they are traditionally at loggerheads with Corsican nationalists and are reluctant to devolve power to autonomist movements.  

Seeking to head off their opposition, Darmanin stressed that the draft text “does not separate Corsica from the Republic”, makes no mention of a Corsican “people”, and does not grant the Corsican language official status on a par with French. But his arguments were quickly dismissed.   

“Recognising a ‘historic, linguistic and cultural community’ effectively means recognising a Corsican people,” Bruno Retailleau, the head of Les Républicains in the Senate, wrote in a post on X, describing the draft text as a “dangerous step” for the country. “If it is accepted, this proposal will lead to similar demands from other regions and will lead to the break-up of France,” added Jean-Jacques Panunzi, a conservative senator from southern Corsica.  

Ghosts of nationalist struggle 

Dominici voiced greater optimism about the text’s prospects in parliament, playing down suggestions from some quarters that the bid for Corsican autonomy may have been set up to fail.  

“Macron has crossed a Rubicon by backing autonomy and recognising Corsican language and culture,” he said. “It is unlikely he would have done so without some degree of confidence in the numbers.”  

The Corsica analyst noted that some critics of autonomy had been more guarded in their response, suggesting they may yet be persuaded to back the proposal. They include Jean-Martin Mondoloni, the head of the conservative opposition in the Corsican regional assembly, who reiterated his misgivings about the text on Tuesday, though adding: “I am not going to take on the role of executioner”.  

Like Macron, Mondoloni will be keenly aware of the potential consequences of killing off the push for autonomy on an island blighted by past unrest.   

The need to address Corsica’s complaints became all too urgent in 2022 when rioting swept across the territory following a fatal prison attack on Corsican militant nationalist Yvan Colonna, who was serving a life sentence for the 1998 assassination of prefect Claude Érignac, the French state’s top official on the island.  

Read morePrison attack on Corsican nationalist reopens old wounds on restive French island

Colonna’s five years on the run – hiding as a shepherd in the Corsican scrubland long romanticised as a hideout for patriots and bandits – had turned him into a symbol of the island’s defiance towards the French state, and his death in custody triggered a furious response.  

Thousands of protesters marched through towns and cities across the island, holding up banners that read Statu Francese Assassinu (“The French state is an assassin”) and I Francesi fora (“Out with the French”). Youths clashed with police and targeted French symbols, fanning fears of a return to the violence and bloodshed that scarred the island from the 1970s to the turn of the century.  

“The pro-independence camp has since demilitarised, but it has not vanished,” said Dominici, highlighting the risk that disgruntled youths take matters into their own hands if officials fail to address the island’s longstanding concerns.   

“The threat is real,” he warned. “If the constitutional process fizzles out, there is a real danger of a return to violence.”