The government and Corsican elected officials reached agreement on the night of Monday March 11 to Tuesday March 12 on a draft "constitutional writing" providing for "the recognition of a status of autonomy" of the island "within the Republic", announced Gérald Darmanin.

This evening, with Corsican political representatives, we found a broad institutional agreement in accordance with the requirements set by @EmmanuelMacron.

This agreement will soon be debated by the Corsican Assembly before taking the path of political consultations… pic.twitter.com/6GaUrqD29A

— Gérald DARMANIN (@GDarmanin) March 12, 2024

This draft agreement, which obtained a "broad consensus" among elected officials, completes the "Beauvau process" initiated by the Minister of the Interior and will now be transmitted to the Corsican Territorial Assembly so that it can vote, Gérald Darmanin told the press after a meeting lasting almost five hours at the ministry.

The text "respects both the red lines set by the President of the Republic and myself, and also the time allocated" by Emmanuel Macron, a six-month period supposed to end at the end of March and lead to an agreement, underlined the minister.

Not “two categories of citizens”

The minister and the island elected officials present, including Gilles Simeoni, autonomist president of the executive council of Corsica and Laurent Marcangeli, deputy of Corsica-du-Sud and president of the Horizons group in the National Assembly, notably found unanimous agreement on the first paragraph of this “writing”.

"This constitutional writing provides for the recognition of a status of autonomy for Corsica within the Republic which takes into account its own interests linked to its Mediterranean insularity, to its historical, linguistic, cultural community having developed a singular link to his land", says this first paragraph.

Government and elected officials also agreed on the fact that “laws and regulations can be subject to adaptation” on the island, added the minister.

Gérald Darmanin assured that this text in no way provided for there to be “two categories of citizens” in Corsica.

“There is no notion of people (Corsican) but of cultural community,” he explained, also ruling out any “resident status” on the island.

“We have moved towards autonomy” and “there is no separation of Corsica from the Republic”, summarized Gérald Darmanin.

“The constitutional writing finally provides that voters registered on the electoral lists of Corsica be consulted on this project,” he assured.

After consulting the Corsican Assembly, "the President of the Republic will initiate constitutional reform, whenever he wishes", continued the minister, recalling that the text must be voted on by both chambers of Parliament in the same terms, then adopted by Congress by a three-fifths majority.

With AFP

The France 24 summary of the week

invites you to look back at the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application