Corsica: Darmanin engages the “word of the State”, Colonna’s sentence suspended

This suspension, provided for by law in the event of a vital prognosis, is “a relief for the family”, reacted to AFP Sylvain Cormier, one of the lawyers of the independence activist, still in a coma in a hospital in Marseille following his attack at the prison of Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) on March 2, by a radicalized prisoner.

This announcement came in the middle of Gérald Darmanin’s visit to Corsica to discuss the future of the island.

During two days of talks with the Corsican elected officials, the Minister of the Interior repeated that he was ready to lead discussions that could “go as far as autonomy”.

“We now need a working process to start” so that “in a peaceful way we can consider the necessary reform”, declared Thursday in Aubervilliers the president candidate Emmanuel Macron.

The day before, the autonomist president of the Executive Council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, had welcomed the “very strong commitments” of Mr. Darmanin.

Nevertheless, the former lawyer of Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life for his participation in the assassination of the prefect Erignac in 1998, had asked that these exchanges be “recorded in a document, with a calendar”, before being able to consider having ” laid the first stone of a historical process”.

A request accepted by the minister, in favor of “everything we have said (be) inscribed in time, as a commitment of the State and the Community” of Corsica.

The objective announced by each of the parties is to reach a possible project, which could require a constitutional reform, “by the end of the year”: “will we agree to the outcome of these many difficult discussions, I am not sure, but let’s start with this dialogue”, tempered Mr. Darmanin.

“Flimsy Calm”

This outstretched hand from the government prompted the warning on Thursday from Jean-Pierre Chevènement, in post at the Interior when the prefect Erignac was assassinated: In Corsica, “we are witnessing a permanent blackmail to violence. Since 1975, the governments, whatever their political color (…) have gone from retreat to retreat”, he lamented in an interview with L’Opinion.

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For the senator (LR) of Corse-du-Sud Jean-Jacques Panunzi, “it is useless to make the Corsicans imagine that we risk having a status of autonomy, especially in Polynesia”, which is according to him “to the frontier of independence,” he told AFP, adding: “if a new statute was enough to settle the Corsican problem, it would have been settled for 40 years.”

Gérald Darmanin continued the consultations Thursday afternoon in Porto-Vecchio. Back in Ajaccio on Friday, he will then go to Bastia in the afternoon.

On the aggression of Yvan Colonna, which he described as “despicable”, the minister once again promised “all the light”. In addition to the judicial inquiry, hearings began on Wednesday at the National Assembly and the conclusions of the administrative inquiry will be made public “in ten days”, he said.

For the first time, ten photos taken from the video of the assassination attempt recorded by a prison surveillance camera were broadcast Thursday evening on the France 3 Corse site.

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The aggression of the independence activist was the detonator of tensions between the State and the nationalists, frustrated that their victories at the polls, in the territorial elections of 2015, 2017 then 2021, did not bring their demands to fruition.

Among them, the rapprochement to the Corsican prison of Borgo of the two other members of the + commando Erignac +, Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri. Welcoming the return to a “fragile calm” on the island, the Minister of the Interior recalled Thursday that these rapprochements were conditional on the lasting cessation of violence.

In Bastia, a 21-year-old man, arrested on Sunday evening after the demonstration which left 102 injured, including 77 members of the police, was indicted and imprisoned on Wednesday for violence against a person holding public authority, according to the floor.

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