The French Government opens to dialogue on Corsican autonomy only if the violence ends

The French government stated this Wednesday that it has “a great opening to dialogue” on a reinforcement of Corsican autonomy, as long as the disturbances that broke out on the island after the serious assault in prison on the Corsican Yan Colonna, convicted of murder, cease.

Twenty days after some presidential election already clouded by the war in Ukraine, a new front has been opened in the administration of Emmanuel Macron, immersed in the campaign for his re-election.

Two weeks ago an Islamist prisoner attacked Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment and at 61 years old he is torn between life and death, and since then almost daily demonstrations have led to serious altercations on the islandwith numerous demonstrators and law enforcement officials injured.

To prevent the situation from spiraling further out of control, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin has come to the fore. Hours before his trip to the Mediterranean island today, Darmanin announced that the Government “is very open to dialogue” to give autonomy to the islandbut “if this occurs in a calm situation”.

In his press conference held in Paris, the Minister of the Interior acknowledged that the Government is “very concerned” both about this lack of public order as for the impact “on the life of Corsicans”.

“The sector of tourism -one of the main sources of wealth on the island- has warned me that trips have already been cancelled”, he lamented.

The head of the Interior has assumed that the current autonomy “is not the one dreamed of” by many Corsicans and has recognized that a possible evolution of it will not take place in the twenty days remaining for the first round of the presidential elections on April 10.

The idea is “to agree on a calendar and listen to requests and seeing how it evolves in the coming months and years is a long process,” warned Darmanin, who will meet with the highest regional representative, the nationalist Gilles Simeoni.