Corsica mourns.

Across the island, locals have gathered in churches and squares for prayers or minutes of silence.

A white cloth with the inscription "Gloria à tè Yvan" (Glory to Yvan) hangs in front of the prefecture in Ajaccio.

The tributes go to Yvan Colonna, who in 1998 shot and killed the highest representative of the French state in Corsica, Prefect Claude Erignac, in an ambush.

He has been found guilty of this crime three times in court, but Corsica bid him farewell on Friday like a hero.

The gendarmes guarding the entrance to the prefecture did not remove the shawl praising Colonna, writes the correspondent of the Corse-Matin newspaper.

Michael Wiegel

Political correspondent based in Paris.

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President Emmanuel Macron has protested that the President of the Corsican Regional Council ordered mourning flags and also put the tricolor at half mast.

That was "a mistake," Macron said on a television show, "that's inappropriate."

"It is a blow to the survivors of Prefect Erignac and an insult to France," said right-wing presidential candidate Valérie Pécresse.

She was "extremely shocked," said socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo.

"The only martyr is Claude Erignac," stressed Marine Le Pen. "An abyss of misunderstanding between Corsica and the continent," headlined Corse-Matin.

They call France a "murderer state"

Colonna's funeral on Friday in his hometown of Cargèse was attended by everyone who was of any standing on the island.

Gilles Simeoni, the president of the regional council, has asked to carry the coffin into the church with other men.

Simeoni was formerly Colonna's lawyer, his recently deceased father Edmond is considered the founding father of modern resistance to central France in Corsica.

However, the son now appears to many independence fighters as too soft and yielding.

They threatened to return to the armed resistance.

In fact, Simeoni has been patiently negotiating to gain more autonomy rights.

But it was only the riots of Corsican youth after an Islamist attack on Colonna in prison in early March that brought Macron's government to concessions.

Autonomy negotiations are scheduled to begin in two weeks.

The island society has increasingly turned away from the mainland in the past five years.

The rallying cry of the youth accusing the French state of responsibility for Colonna's death is "murderer state".

Simeoni does not express himself quite so radically, but he also speaks of an “overwhelming guilt”.

He refers to the many unsuccessful requests to transfer Colonna to a prison in Corsica.

In February 2018, when Macron commemorated the murdered prefect in Ajaccio, Colonna's wife begged him in front of the cameras.

"I just want our son to be able to visit his father in a Corsican prison."

Many on the island are bitter that Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has not been held accountable for the prison system's failure.

Colonna had been attacked and badly injured by a radicalized fellow inmate during morning exercise.

He never woke up from the coma and died of his injuries in a hospital in Marseille.

The Minister of Justice has regretted the incident and ordered an investigation.

Many in Corsica think he should have resigned.

Anger is particularly strong among young people.

They protested for nights until Paris gave in.

The other two members of the assassination squad will be transferred to the Borgo detention center in Corsica in April.