Erignac case: demonstrators flock to Bastia in support of Yvan Colonna

Europe 1 with AFP 3:41 p.m., March 13, 2022

Several hundred people flocked this Sunday afternoon to Bastia (Haute-Corse) for a demonstration in support of Yvan Colonna, Corsican independence activist sentenced for the assassination of the prefect Erignac, victim of an attack in prison which left him in a coma, AFP noted.

Near the Bastia courthouse, from where the procession is to start in the direction of the prefecture, the streets have been closed, the banks secured and the ATMs protected by wooden panels.

Similarly, garbage containers, regularly used by some demonstrators to light fires, have been removed.

"For the release of all Corsican prisoners"

Just before the start of the demonstration, Bastia prosecutor Arnaud Viornery told AFP that "about 300 Molotov cocktails were discovered in a public space" in the city.

This demonstration was initiated by nationalist student unions, joined by all the nationalist parties on the island, as for the rally in Corte last Sunday, which brought together 4,200 people according to the authorities, 15,000 according to the organizers.

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"We came for what is happening in Corsica, the French state which denies the Corsican people, for the release of all Corsican prisoners", explained to AFP Marité Costa, 58, already present in Corte last Sunday. : "We say young people are thugs, but they're not thugs, they fight, it's thanks to them that things have changed, because Macron doesn't care, even a month from elections".

"In seven days of violence, things have changed"

The day after the attack on Yvan Colonna at the central house in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) on March 2, rallies took place all over the island, against a background of questions about the conditions of this attack targeting this Corsican independence activist who had long demanded his reconciliation in a prison on the island.

This week, the violence intensified with in particular the intrusion of fifteen demonstrators on Wednesday evening into the courthouse in Ajaccio, which they ransacked and tried to set on fire.

On Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex tried to calm the situation by announcing the lifting of the status of "particularly guarded detainee" (DPS) of Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, two other members of the "Erignac commando" still detained on the continent. 

"In seven years, nothing has progressed, and in seven days of violence, things have changed," noted Sunday with AFP Antoine Negretti, 29, who came from Balagne with his father.