A “blue night” hit Corsica, with around twenty explosions claimed by separatists, mostly targeting second homes during the night from Sunday to Monday, ten days after the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron, who proposed to the island “autonomy in the Republic”.
No serious injuries have at this stage been recorded by the authorities, who have notified the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office.
The Corsican National Liberation Front (FLNC) claimed responsibility for these explosions, assuring that there was no “common destiny with France”, in a press release sent to the daily Corsica-Morning. “ In Francia Fora » (“France outside”) concludes this four-line text.
The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into 22 explosions and their claim by the FLNC, he said.
The investigation was notably opened for attempted assassination, destruction and attempt by means dangerous to people, manufacturing of explosive devices, all in connection with a terrorist enterprise.
“Autonomy in the Republic”
This “new blue night” comes around ten days after the arrival of President Macron, who proposed to Corsica “autonomy in the Republic”, while warning that this “historic moment” will not happen “without” or “ against the French state.
For almost two years, Corsica has experienced an upsurge in arson attacks and explosions mainly targeting second homes, most often accompanied by nationalist graffiti. These explosions were often claimed, some by the FLNC, others by GCC (Ghjuventù Clandestina Corsa), an underground Corsican youth movement.
In a press release at the beginning of August, the FLNC called for the creation of a “patriotic resistance platform” in the face of “disproportionate colonization” and a “process of destruction of the Corsican people”.
According to a judicial source in August, 50 investigations “in connection with arson or acts of destruction of various kinds” in Corsica have been opened by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office since the start of the year. There were 22 in 2022, 3 in 2021 and 4 in 2020.
On the same date, the anti-terrorism unit of the Paris court was responsible for 14 judicial inquiries linked to Corsican terrorism, she said.
The last “blue night” of this kind dates back to the night of March 9 to 10, 2019, with seven homes damaged in total.
The FLNC, which appeared for the first time in 1976, with a profession of faith found in the rubble of 18 attacks during a first “blue night”, has since become an opaque nebula, the result of splits, fratricidal struggles and recompositions.
With Sandra Laffont in Marseille