On a visit to Corsica, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin said, Thursday, March 17, ready to engage "the word of the State" in his discussions with nationalist leaders on a possible autonomy of the island, while in Paris the justice suspended the sentence of Yvan Colonna for "medical reasons".

This suspension, provided for by law in the event of a vital prognosis, is "a relief for the family", reacted to AFP Sylvain Cormier, one of the lawyers of the independence activist, still in a coma in a hospital in Marseille after his attack at the prison of Arles, in the Bouches-du-Rhône, on March 2, by a radicalized prisoner.

"Very strong commitments" 

This announcement came in the middle of Gérald Darmanin's visit to Corsica to discuss the island's autonomy.

After two days of exchanges with the Corsican elected officials, during which he repeated that he was ready to lead discussions that could "go as far as the autonomy" of the island, the Minister of the Interior confirmed to the press that he would agree to commit black on white: "What I say, (...) I am able to write it", he assured. 

"I do not have two types of words, I only have one, I am like the Corsicans, a man of honor. And so I will write and I will obviously engage the word of the Republic", has he insisted on Thursday, when asked about the risk that the presidential election posed to the process.

The day before, the autonomist president of the Executive Council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, had welcomed the "very strong commitments" of the Minister of the Interior.

Nevertheless, the former lawyer of Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac in 1998, had asked that these exchanges be "recorded in a document, with a calendar", before being able to consider having " laid the first stone of a historical process".

A request therefore accepted by the minister, in favor of "everything we have said (being) inscribed in time, as a commitment of the State and the Community" of Corsica.

The objective announced by each of the parties is to achieve a possible autonomy project, which could require a constitutional reform, "by the end of the year": "will we start agreement at the end of these many and difficult discussions, I am not sure, but let's start with this dialogue", tempered Gérald Darmanin.  

"Flimsy Calm" 

This outstretched hand from the government prompted the warning on Thursday from Jean-Pierre Chevènement, in post at the Interior when the prefect Erignac was assassinated: in Corsica, "we are witnessing a permanent blackmail to violence. Since 1975, the governments, whatever their political color (...) have gone from retreat to retreat", he lamented in an interview with L'Opinion.

Gérald Darmanin was expected in Porto-Vecchio late Thursday afternoon, to go to the gendarmerie targeted last Friday by an attempted intrusion by demonstrators, an attempt marked in particular by the throwing of an ax in the housing of one of the constables. 

"I was engaged on the yellow vests, it was below what happened", insisted to the minister a gendarme engaged on the demonstration of Sunday in Bastia, which had made 102 wounded, including 77 members of law enforcement.

The minister must then return to Ajaccio on Friday, before going to Bastia in the afternoon.

On the aggression of Yvan Colonna, which he described as "despicable", the minister once again promised "all the light".

In addition to the judicial inquiry, hearings began on Wednesday at the National Assembly and the conclusions of the administrative inquiry will be made public "in ten days", he said.

The aggression of Yvan Colonna was the detonator of tensions between the State and the nationalists, frustrated that their victories at the polls, in the territorial elections of 2015, 2017 then 2021, did not bring their demands to fruition.

Among them, the rapprochement to the Corsican prison of Borgo of the two other members of the Erignac commando, Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri.

Welcoming the return to a "fragile calm" on the island, the Minister of the Interior recalled Thursday that these rapprochements were conditional on the lasting cessation of violence. 

Questioned by AFP, the son of Alain Ferrandi affirmed that the minister had made "no specific commitment" on a date for these possible rapprochements.

With AFP

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