"We discussed the institutional future of the island, which the nationalist majority wanted to be called autonomy," explained the minister, after a lunch with Gilles Simeoni, the autonomist president of the executive. Corsica, in Corte (Haute-Corse): "And we are awaiting proposals (from him) and his majority".

"We talk almost every week with President Simeoni, even when we don't see each other. And we are still on this point," said the minister, who was speaking on the second day of a visit to Corsica. started on Saturday in Calvi.

Sunday morning, at the Town Hall of Corte, Gilles Simeoni had praised the minister's "state of mind", seeing it as a "happy omen of the work and the appointments which (them) await and which (their) will make it possible to lead Corsica together towards a path which will be that of peace, emancipation and development, within the framework of a peaceful relationship".

"We have important discussions (...), an important meeting will be held (Friday) in Paris", had already underlined Mr. Darmanin on Saturday, in reference to his invitation launched to Gilles Simeoni and Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, the autonomist president of the Assembly of Corsica, to resume discussions on the future of the island.

These discussions were interrupted in the fall due to tensions around the last members still in prison of the commando responsible for the assassination of the prefect Erignac in 1998 in Ajaccio.

The third member of the "Erignac commando" sentenced to life imprisonment, Yvan Colonna, died on March 21 of his injuries, two weeks after his attack by a fellow prisoner in Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône).

It was after this tragedy that Mr. Darmanin undertook to discuss the future of the island, until “potential autonomy”.

Gilles Simeoni (g), the autonomist president of the Corsican executive and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in Corte on February 19, 2023 © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

"No break in dialogue"

The minister went to the Isle of Beauty last August, after the catastrophic storms that killed five people there, and in early February, for the 25th anniversary of the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac.

But since July and the launch of a cycle of consultations on the future of the island, Mr. Darmanin had no longer made any "political" visit to Corsica.

He had canceled his planned trips in October and December, in the face of the strong tensions born around the umpteenth refusal of justice to grant a semi-freedom regime to Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of Claude Erignac but releasable since 2017.

"There was no break in the thread of the dialogue", had however insisted the entourage of Mr. Darmanin before this two-day visit to the island, repeating that the minister wanted "to speak to all the Corsicans, whatever whatever their sensitivity.

Gilles Simeoni (2nd g), the autonomist president of the Corsican executive, the mayor of Corte Xavier Poli (d), the prefect of Corsica Amaury de Saint Quentin (g) and the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin (2nd d) in Corte on February 19, 2023 © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP

Present Saturday in Calvi and Sunday in Corte, Jean-Félix Acquaviva, autonomist deputy for the second constituency of Haute-Corse, whose arrival had not been announced, spoke of a "positive state of mind", after an exchange with Mr Darmanin.

On Saturday, however, he insisted that "measures requiring autonomy to advance Corsica from an economic, social and cultural point of view must be taken quickly".

These discussions around the future of Corsica resume when a new clandestine group, baptized "Ghjuventu Clandestina Corsa" (GCC, Corsican Clandestine Youth), presenting itself as "the armed wing of a revolutionary movement", comes from announce its creation on February 7.

Affirming to walk "in the footsteps of the FLNC" (Corsican National Liberation Front), this group explained that it is now up to "Corsican youth to resume the fight in order to stand up to the French State and its contempt".

© 2023 AFP