a promise strewn with pitfalls for the government

The executive urges Corsican elected officials to agree on a constitutional revision project proposing autonomy for the island, but it comes up against the Senate which sets limits.

A constitutional revision barely approved on Monday, with the inclusion of abortion in the Constitution, and the executive already wishes to initiate a second one, with a much more uncertain outcome: a new “status of autonomy in the Republic” for Corsica. The countdown begins. Emmanuel Macron would like to complete the content of the text at the end of March. This is why Gérald Darmanin invites the elected representatives of the Corsican Assembly, governed by an autonomist majority, to a new dinner at Place Beauvau on Monday March 11, based on the model of the one which was already held there on February 26.

To move forward, the government first requires a consensus from Corsican elected officials. They agreed on three important points, the “bilingualism” to promote the practice of the Corsican language, a status of “residence” to limit real estate speculation and the recognition of a historical and cultural community, but they are still divided on a fourth essential point.

The normative power of Corsican elected officials

This point of division is the granting of normative power to elected islanders. How far could they make their own laws? In all areas except sovereign issues, the autonomists respond, while the right leans towards a “adaptive power” national texts. This is the main issue which weakens the government’s chances of obtaining a 3/5th majority in Parliament. The executive finds itself once again in the hands of the right, with a majority in the Senate, which is raising fears of a challenge to “the indivisibility of the Republic”.

If Place Beauvau is to be believed, a failure would firstly be that of Corsican elected officials incapable of getting along and of a narrow-minded senatorial right. This Pontius Pilate attitude somewhat offends the elected autonomists. And it indicates that deep down, the executive does not necessarily believe in this status of autonomy. A discovery discovered two years ago by Gérald Darmanin to put an end to the riots provoked on the island by the death of Yvan Colonna, killed in prison by a radicalized inmate. A violence which also awoke last weekend in Bastia. Nationalist demonstrators, who saw fit to pay homage to the assassin of prefect Érignac, threw Molotov cocktails at the police, putting the State and the elected islanders guilty of arguing back against each other. This eruptive climate should remind negotiators of their responsibilities: in Corsica, when the discussion fails, violence is often ready to resurface.