They all had the same diagnosis: Corsica was not doing very well, and the situation was urgent. "We're on the brink of a volcano," said Jean-Jacques Ciccolini, president of the association of mayors of Corse-du-Sud. Like the mayor of Cozzano, a village of almost 300 inhabitants perched on the steep slopes of Haut-Taravo, Corsican political leaders, whether nationalist or not, are virtually unanimous. "We're at a tipping point: Either we move forward through compromise, or it's a stalemate and tensions are hardening," they all said.
It is against this backdrop of concern and expectation that Emmanuel Macron is expected in Corsica from Wednesday, September 27, to Friday, September 29. The official reason for this fourth presidential visit is the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the island's liberation, including a tribute to two Corsican resistance fighters: Fred Scamaroni, who committed suicide on March 19, 1943, in a cell in the Ajaccio citadel after having been tortured by the Nazis, and Danielle Casanova, who died of typhus in Auschwitz on May 9, 1943, where she had been deported in January 1943 following her arrest by the French police in Paris in February 1942.
It's a commemorative visit, the kind Macron is fond of, but, as everyone recognizes, what is at stake goes far beyond this framework. Gilles Simeoni, the nationalist president of the local government, said, "The stakes of this trip are first and foremost political." The leader of the island's political right wing, MP Laurent Marcangeli, MP (Horizons), and Jean-Christophe Angelini, the autonomist mayor of Porto-Vecchio, one of Simeoni's nationalist opponents, share this view. They are all impatient for the president's announcements concerning a possible change in the island's status.
For almost a year and a half now, Corsican elected representatives from all sides of the political spectrum and the government have been engaged in discussions, at the center of which an unavoidable recurring theme is the question of the island's status. These discussions began in July 2022, following the riots that shook the island after the fatal attack on independence activist Yvan Colonna on March 2, 2022, in Arles prison, southern France. Led by French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, they have progressed intermittently (five meetings in 14 months), at a pace dictated by the ups and downs of current events and the whims of the various stakeholders.
Autonomy or not? And if so, what kind of autonomy? This long-standing island debate stirs up emotions, and Darmanin tried to defuse it back in March 2022, when the island's youth were demonstrating to the cry of statu francese assassin ("murderous French state"). "We're ready to go as far as autonomy," he even told the newspaper Corse-Matin. Since then, the various players have vied with each other through their declarations and postures. "Behind the word autonomy, we need content. I'm not sure that autonomy will make people happier," said Jean-Martin Mondoloni, co-chairman of the Un Soffiu Novu group.
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