The latest episode to date, Monday morning, the family home of Simone Guerrini, deputy senator LR of Corse-du-Sud Jean-Jacques Panunzi and deputy to the culture of the mayor (DVD) of Ajaccio, was heavily damaged by an arson in Ajaccio.

Tags "GCC", for Gjhuventu clandestina corsa ("Corsican Clandestine Youth"), a clandestine group that announced its creation in early February, and "Speculatori Fora" (speculation outside, editor's note) were inscribed on the façade.

The same group had claimed responsibility for arson attacks on the town halls of Afa and Appietto, on the outskirts of Ajaccio, at the end of March. "We warn ... elected officials taking advantage of the wealth of the island for their benefit and only theirs," the mysterious group said in a statement.

A new text, sent to Corse-Matin on Tuesday, reinforced the confusion by ensuring that this previous communiqué of March 30 was the fact of "usurpers".

This cacophony leads the League of Human Rights of Corsica to "worry about the risk of rivalry between clandestine organizations", a phenomenon that, in the 90s, had led the nationalists to tear themselves apart in a fratricidal struggle, with about twenty deaths within the various clandestine movements.

"We think there are several small groups" acting "a bit like franchisees, with specific geographical areas," a source close to the investigation told AFP.

The new text signed GCC transmitted Tuesday, but not dated, does not mention the fire of the house of the elected ajaccienne right, but claims on the other hand the fires of the town halls, explaining that these acts aim to "directly attack the State and the nationalist elected officials who have not been able to keep their promises".

The home of a municipal assistant to culture of Ajaccio, partially damaged by a fire that would have been lit voluntarily, on April 10, 2023 near Ajaccio, Corsica © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP/Archives

Problem, the mayors targeted are not nationalists, which raises questions about the chosen targets. Are they the result of mistakes, personal settling of scores or real political actions?

"Stop concrete"

Mrs. Guerrini's house "has been in the possession of this family for 40 years. There is no speculation," said Horizons MP Laurent Marcangeli, former mayor of Ajaccio.

"If the fight is aimed at real estate speculation, as they say in their tags and press releases, it is surprising to see some municipalities, where construction goes at a frantic pace, be spared," an investigator told AFP, also noting that real estate developers associated, directly or indirectly, with criminal gangs, have not been affected.

A tag "Speculatori Fora" (speculation outside, editor's note) of the clandestine group "GCC" on the wall of a house partially damaged by a fire, on April 10, 2023 near Ajaccio, Corsica © Pascal POCHARD-CASABIANCA / AFP/Archives

The mayor of Appietto, François Faggianelli, was indignant at one of the tags on his town hall, "Béton Bast" ("stop concrete" in Corsica, editor's note): "the municipality granted two permits (to build) in 2020 and only one in 2021, everything else was refused," he told AFP.

Manager of a construction company, Mr. Faggianelli had already seen two mechanical shovels of his company burned in December on a construction site in Alata, a nearby village, with the inscriptions "Béton Basta", "IFF" (I Francesi Fora, "the French outside", editor's note) and "GCC".

A popular rally was then organized in support of this Corsican craftsman who assured that he had "never encountered this type of problem, neither as a promoter nor as an elected official. I don't have any problems with my competitors either."

If the support for the mayors was unanimous, the condemnation of the facts was not.

The nationalist groups - autonomists and independentists - abstained from voting in the Corsican Assembly on a solemn resolution by the right-wing group Un Soffiu Novu condemning these facts. The autonomist executive then presented its own resolution, providing support to the targeted mayors, without condemning the acts.

On Wednesday, the antimafia collective "A Maffia No, A Vita ié" called on "the GCC and the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) to abandon a violence that plays into the hands of the mafia", hoping for a "strengthening of citizen mobilization".

© 2023 AFP