Dhe French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has declared himself ready to make concessions ahead of his visit to the Mediterranean island of Corsica, which has been rocked by violent protests. “We are ready to go as far as autonomy,” Darmanin told the local newspaper Corse-Martin. A prerequisite for negotiations, however, is that peace returns to the island. There could be no “sincere dialogue” under the “pressure” of explosive devices and the “ubiquity of law enforcement”.
Darmanin wants to come to the island on Wednesday and Thursday to get an idea of the situation after the protests that have been going on for two weeks.
The question of what an “autonomy” of the island entails is critical, the minister told the newspaper. “We have to discuss that.” This institutional question will “logically be tackled during President Emmanuel Macron’s second term” – if he is re-elected in the presidential elections in April.
Conditional Admission of Guilt
The riots were triggered by an attack by a fellow prisoner on the well-known Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna on March 2 in Arles prison. Colonna was serving a life sentence there for the 1998 murder of Prefect Claude Erignac. Colonna remains in “serious” condition, his attorneys said Tuesday.
In the newspaper interview, Darmanin acknowledged some state “responsibility” for the attack. The state must be “protector of the people who are under its responsibility”. The government is obliged to “find out the truth about what happened”.
After the attack, there were repeated serious riots in Corsica. On Sunday, an initially peaceful demonstration of several thousand people in Bastia got out of control. 67 people were injured, including 44 security forces. During the riots, some of the masked demonstrators used Molotov cocktails and homemade explosive devices. The police used tear gas and water cannons against the demonstrators.
Fight for more autonomy
Colonna is revered by many in Corsica as the hero of the struggle for the island’s independence from France. Corsica had been rocked by assassinations for decades. The situation has calmed down in recent years, but many Corsicans are demanding the release or at least the transfer of the imprisoned separatists to the island. They are also demanding greater autonomy from Paris.
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