Riots, more than 100 injured... What is happening on the French island of Corsica?

The French island of Corsica has been experiencing demonstrations and riots for two weeks due to the brutal attack on a prisoner Corsican independence. What is behind this explosive situation that forced Paris to send its Minister of the Interior?

- What is the trigger? -

On 2 March, a prisoner from Arles (south) prison, presented as a “jihadist”, tried to suffocate Yvan Colonna, the most famous of the Corsican activists and convicted of the 1998 murder of Prefect Claude Erignac.

Since then, this 61-year-old former pastor, who always denied his involvement in the murder and called for his approach to Corsican prisons, has been in a coma. His condition “is still very serious,” his lawyer said on Tuesday.

To the cry of “murderous French State”, thousands of people demonstrated on this island in the Mediterranean, ruled by Corsican nationalists.

Tensions escalated on Sunday when a mass protest in Bastia degenerated into “riots” and attacked public buildings, according to the prosecutor's office. A hundred people were injured, including 77 officers.

- France-Corsica, a special relationship? -

Corsica, which has some 350,000 inhabitants and a size similar to Puerto Rico, was incorporated into France in the second half of the 18th century, after passing through several European kingdoms and a brief independent period.

The lace in France of the fourth largest island in the Mediterranean, where Napoleon Bonaparte was born in 1769, has evolved over time: from being part of a region with Marseilles to achieving special status.

In a country less decentralized than its neighbours Spain or Germany, Corsica has had a particular status since 1990, similar to that of the French territories in the Caribbean — Guadeloupe and Martinique — and Mayotte.

Since January 2018, Corsica has been considered a territorial community, which combines departmental and regional functions, and manages new competencies such as sport, transport, culture and the environment.

- What are the demands? -

The Corsican leaders and protesters ask the state to know the “truth” of the aggression, the approach to the island of activists imprisoned in other regions of France, such as Colonna, and to address the future of Corsica.

“It is urgent to build a real political solution with Corsica,” regional president, nationalist Gilles Simeoni, told AFP on Monday after Paris announced the start of a “cycle of discussions.”

The French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, will discuss with local officials from Wednesday the conditions of an “evolution” of the Corsican lace in France, “as provided for in the Constitution”.

According to the regional newspaper Corse Matin, this reference to the Constitution causes local officials to fear that Paris will see some of their demands: recognition of the Corsican people, tax status, greater autonomy, etc.

Another traditional claim is the co-officiality of the Corsican language, together with French, in the region.

- What is the answer of the French government? -

In addition to dialogue, the French government made some symbolic decisions, but key to an island that for four decades was shaken by the attacks of the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FNLC).

The French Prime Minister, Jean Castex, withdrew a special statute for Colonna and two other members of the “Erignac Command”, Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, paving the way for their transfer to Corsican prisons.

“Once the flame is lit, it will be difficult to extinguish it,” warns François Kraus, of the political analysis company Ifop, for whom the situation could worsen if the government “does not also give in at the institutional level”.

The tension in Corsica comes weeks before the first round of the presidential election in France, on April 10, although it fails to open a gap in the agenda of an electoral campaign marked by the war in Ukraine.

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