The word has spread. For the first time in history, a President of the Republic (the fourth to speak in this forum since its creation in 1982) spoke “autonomy” before the Assembly of Corsica. “Let us have the audacity to build the autonomy of Corsica in the Republic, launched by Emmanuel Macron, on Thursday, September 28 in Ajaccio, to the sixty-three elected officials of the island community. It will not be autonomy from the State, nor autonomy without the State, but autonomy for Corsica and in the Republic. »
In two sentences and after twenty-five minutes of a speech that lasted around forty, the Head of State broke a taboo that was almost fifty years old. “I am in favor of taking a new step” he had said a few moments before. “To fully anchor Corsica in the Republic and recognize its uniqueness, we must move forward and to do so we need the entry of Corsica into our Constitution.he said. It is your wish, I share it and make it mine because I respect and recognize the history, the culture, the Corsican specificities in the Republic. »
There is solemnity in the air. Among the guests are the former presidents of the Corsican Assembly, the Gaullist Camille de Rocca Serra and the communist Dominique Bucchini. This is because time is, if not serious, at least important.
A year and a half after the start of the debates initiated after the uprising of Corsican youth, provoked by the murder of Yvan Colonna in the Arles prison (Bouches-du-Rhône) in March 2022, Emmanuel Macron opened the second phase of a slow, slow process. He set a deadline of six months to make the final decisions, but be careful, he insisted on the substance: to sign the final approvals, the Corsican elected officials must agree on a project. “No red line, indicated the head of state but, to prepare the organic invoice (…) It is necessary that the various institutional issues be the subject of an agreement between the political groups of the Corsican assembly. »
A kind of “at the same time Corsican”
The President of the Republic demands unanimity among the island’s elected officials, without which he fears he will fail in the face of parliamentarians who resist such institutional development. Which is equivalent to saying: agreed autonomy, but not the one defined by the Assembly of Corsica on July 5, in a deliberation adopted by majority. Priority was given to the recognition of the Corsican people, the co-official nature of the language and the status of resident.
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