Sentenced to life for the murder of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, Yvan Colonna was attacked last Wednesday by a fellow prisoner in Arles, where he was serving his sentence.
A week after the tragedy, the nationalist activist is still between life and death.
After a demonstration in Corte (Haute-Corse), last Sunday, which brought together 4,200 people according to the authorities and 15,000 according to the organizers, it is the turn of the youth to mobilize.
In recent days, several demonstrations by high school and university students have been organized and schools blocked in support of Yvan Colonna.
On Tuesday, violence broke out between young people and the police, causing several serious injuries.
From our special correspondent in Ajaccio and Corte,
By taking the eighty kilometers of road which connect Ajaccio (Corse du Sud) to Corte (Haute-Corse), it is difficult to ignore the messages of support for Yvan Colonna.
Placards hung on road signs, sheets stretched on bridge railings, tags in tunnels or even portraits drawn on the walls... Since the violent attack on the Corsican separatist by a fellow prisoner last Wednesday, the movement has won over the entire Corsican population, and especially the youth.
In front of the banner "Ghjustizia è verità per Yvan
“Deployed on the pediment of the Flesch high school in Ajaccio, this Wednesday morning, there are only about twenty to continue the blockade which began on Monday, and which must continue until the end of the week.
Blame it on the "cold" and "the massive gathering" planned for the end of the day in front of the prefecture of the port city, according to Angèle, a first-grade student, designated by her comrades as "the spokesperson" for high school students.
However, on Tuesday, there were several hundred young people demonstrating all over the island of Beauty to support Yvan Colonna and denounce "the responsibility of the State" in the aggression which plunged him between life and death .
A story that belongs to youth
Regardless of their age, they all seem to know the “Colonna file” by heart.
However, almost none of them had been born at the time of the assassination of the prefect Erignac in 1998. "It's part of the history of Corsica, we were told about it all our childhood, we were made aware very young people on the subject.
Somewhere, we bathed in it, ”explain Camille and Lola, first-year students at Laetitia-Bonaparte high school, located a few meters away, whose doors have also remained closed since Monday.
“We weren't born, it's true, but our parents lived it, we grew up with their anger.
We have absorbed all this history, it is also a bit ours somewhere, to us young Corsican people, ”adds Jean-Pierre, educated at “Fesch” in his final year.
An hour and a half by car from there, in the town of Corte, the opinion is not much different among students from the University of Corsica, blocked since Monday.
Although he is a few years older than high school students, Camellu Tomasi, 23, also grew up with the “Colonna affair”.
"We were born into it, we've heard of him all our lives.
Somewhere, we almost lived as if he was always next to us, ”he says.
“Yvan Colonna is a turning point in the history of Corsica, and not necessarily only in the nationalist world.
It is a fairly important passage in our history, ”adds the young man, also general secretary of the nationalist student union Ghjuventu Paolina, in front of the barricades erected at the entrance to the faculty.
“Statu inglese murdered”
In front of the law, social sciences, economics and management building, there are a dozen members of the student union preparing for the general assembly in the afternoon.
Since Monday, they have been chaining demonstrations and blockages to make their voices heard, like “their little brothers” from Ajaccio.
But whether they are in high school or university, for all young people, the conclusion is the same: the French state is partly responsible for the attempted assassination of Yvan Colonna.
“He had the status of “particularly guarded detainee” (DPS).
Even if he was not the one who put his hands around Yvan Colonna's neck, the state is largely responsible, "says Camellu Tomasi, pointing to the banner "Statu francese assassinu" hung on the front of the building. .
If the authorities invoked this status to explain his refusal to transfer Yvan Colonna to a Corsican prison, the youth sees a difference in treatment.
“We have been calling for the pure and harsh application of the law for years, that of reconciliation for prisoners.
This is the case for continental detainees, why wouldn't it be the case for Corsican prisoners?
“, wondered, a little earlier in the day, Paul-Antoine, in front of the Flesch high school, before adding:” Corsica is considered different in the eyes of the State, the Corsican prisoners are automatically cataloged as a threat.
So like their elders, Corsican youth are demanding answers: "We want to know what happened, that the light be shed, that there is no longer this deafening silence of the State", added Angèle in the morning.
A wider spectrum of claims
And for the president of the Ghjuventu Paolina union, Armand Occhiolini, "Yvan Colonna is the straw that broke the camel's back".
“If the Corsican youth is mobilizing today, it is because there is an accumulation of several demands which have not been listened to, we are now reaching the peak of these demands”, explains the young elected official.
In addition to the transfer of Corsican detainees to prisons on the island, the lifting of DPS status for Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, and even their release, it is the State's lack of consideration for Corsican elected officials that seems to annoy the youth.
“The nationalists won the territorial elections with 70% of the vote, and yet we don't listen to them, we pretend they haven't won.
There is still no state consideration.
We have a feeling of denial of democracy ”, as detailed earlier in the day, Ghjacumu-Tumasgiu, in front of the high school of Ajaccio.
Our file on Yvan Colonna
Could this mobilization be an opportunity for young people to take up the torch from their elders?
For Camellu Tomasi, there is indeed a "handover", but "which happens naturally".
: “Young people want to identify themselves as an important component of Corsica.
If we take the words of all the politicians, “we are the future”, analyzes the general secretary of the union.
And its president goes even further, “it is the youth who will develop the island, and perhaps even build a country tomorrow”.
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claude erignac
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