The constitutional text providing for "a status of autonomy" for Corsica "within the Republic" was adopted by a large majority on Wednesday March 27 in the evening by the Corsican Assembly, with 13 elected officials out of 63 voting against it. granting of local normative power.
The text, composed of six paragraphs, was submitted to a vote in three parts, on the notion of Corsican community, the possibility of normative power granted to island elected officials, and finally the idea of submitting this text to Corsican voters via a popular consultation. Then a fourth vote recorded this consultation in three acts of the 63 elected representatives of the Corsican Assembly.
Envious of Guyana, Alsace, the Basque Country and Brittany, this text is the one on which the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and eight Corsican elected officials representing the different political tendencies of the island hemicycle had agreed mid-March in Paris.
“Seek broad consensus”
Sixty-two elected officials voted for the first paragraph of the text, which provides for "the recognition of an autonomous status for Corsica within the Republic which takes into account its own interests linked to its Mediterranean insularity, to its historical community , linguistic, cultural having developed a singular link to its land". Only one independentist elected representative voted against.
The same vote was obtained for paragraph 6 of the text, which provides for validation of this text by Corsican voters via a “popular consultation”. Finally, concerning the four paragraphs relating to "the normative power" which could be granted to island elected officials, 49 voted for, 13 against and one abstained.
During the last vote, stating that "the text thus adopted will be transmitted to parliament", 62 elected officials voted for and one against.
Gérald Darmanin had called on Gilles Simeoni to “seek a broad consensus” within “the Territorial Assembly, beyond the Corsican autonomist and nationalist family”.
If this Corsican step is considered to have been reached by President Macron, those of the national Parliament will remain, where the project is far from unanimous. The right, a majority in the Senate, is in fact hostile to this constitutional reform which, to be validated, will have to be voted on identically by the National Assembly and the upper house before the meeting of deputies and senators in Congress, where a majority three-fifths will be required. The date of the popular consultation of the Corsicans on this text has not yet been determined.
Discussions on a form of autonomy were launched after weeks of violence on the island in 2022, following the death of independence activist Yvan Colonna, attacked in prison where he was serving a life sentence for the 1998 assassination of prefect of Corsica Claude Érignac.
With AFP
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