BFF-48 Fears of return to violence haunt Corsica as Macron visits

509

ZCZC

BFF-48

FRANCE-CORSICA-POLITICS-UNREST

Fears of return to violence haunt Corsica as Macron visits

AJACCIO, France, April 2, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – Bombs at public buildings
and holiday villas going up in flames: a spike in attacks on Corsica has led
to worries that nationalist violence could return to the tourist destination
known as France’s “island of beauty”.

The Mediterranean territory, famed for its beaches and as the birthplace
of Napoleon Bonaparte, was once a hotbed of anti-French militancy which led
to thousands of bombings from the 1970s to early 2000s.

But since 2014, when local National Liberation Front of Corsica
announced a ceasefire, French state infrastructure and the luxury holiday
homes owned by wealthy mainlanders — still seen as “colonisers” by some
locals — have been largely safe.

After a series of incidents in recent weeks, Gilles Simeoni, the
nationalist head of Corsican regional government, warned of a “tense
atmosphere” on the island and “the resurgence of the logic of conflict”.

“It’s our common duty, in Corsica and in Paris, to stop this dreadful
spiral and to open a real dialogue,” he said on Monday, three days before
French President Emmanuel Macron visits.

Improvised explosive devices were found earlier Monday outside two tax
offices in the town of Bastia, leading to evacuations and bomb disposal teams
being scrambled in scenes that recalled past attacks on symbols of the French
state.

At the weekend, a secondary home in Sagone, a village above a
picturesque bay of turquoise water on the west of the island, was attacked,
while another partly-built villa went up in flames in Venzolasca on the
eastern coast.

In early March, on the day Macron’s visit was announced, six homes were
bombed, causing no injuries but lots of structural damage.

– No claim –

For the moment, no group has claimed the violence and experts warn about
drawing conclusions.

“We’re in the dark,” academic Thierry Dominici at the University of
Bordeaux in western France told AFP.

“Either it’s violence led by different people and it’s a new form of
protest. Or it’s the action of isolated individuals who want a return of the
(nationalist) violence,” he said.

Fears of a new cycle of political unrest are linked to a tense standoff
between Macron and the island’s nationalist leader Simeoni and his more
radical coalition partner in the Corsican assembly, Jean-Guy Talamoni.

Their parties — Femu a Corsica (Let’s Make Corsica) and pro-
independence Corsica Libera (Free Corsica) — won 45.36 percent in regional
elections in December 2017 and came to power promising greater autonomy.

They have formulated a series of demands, including an amnesty for
prisoners jailed for separatist violence, expanded use of the Corsican
language and measures to keep wealthy mainlanders out of the local property
market.

But they have run into resistance from Macron, who has offered greater
institutional autonomy and support for the local dialect, but is unwilling to
give too much ground out of fear of encouraging other separatists in France.

In an interview on Tuesday, Macron said he and Simeoni shared a
responsibility to “do everything to ensure that the page of violence has been
turned for good”.

“I think that you can defend the Corsican identity and fully respect the
nation and its values,” he added.

But Simeoni will snub a public meeting with Macron on Thursday which has
been organised as part of the French leader’s “Great National Debate,” a
months-long exercise to discuss the demands of the “yellow vest” protest
movement.

Talamoni too is set to stay away and the ruling coalition has called for
a half-day strike — called “dead island” — to coincide with Macron’s
arrival on Thursday.

Dominici says that despite the standoff and violence there is evidence
that the nationalists are making progress as a non-violent political force
having given up the armed fight.

While highly political demands such as the freeing of prisoners have
gone nowhere, Macron has offered to add an article on Corsica to the
constitution which would recognise its “specificity” and allow the regional
assembly to adapt some national legislation.

“On their (nationalists’) institutional demands, there has been some
progress,” he said.

BSS/AFP/RY/20:22 hrs