After the announcement of the death of Yvan Colonna, Ajaccio saw its streets fill with young Corsicans, who came to quietly honor the memory of the separatist, nearly three weeks after his violent attack in Arles prison.
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Several dozen of them gathered in front of the city’s prefecture. If the gendarmes are there, they stay away, with no reason to intervene. There, the high school students grabbed a guitar, then formed a circle, to be together and honor the memory of Yvan Colonna, whose family demanded that his mourning be respected.
For now, music speaks more than anger. “We are in a phase of mourning, says a high school student. We went in front of the cathedral to sing the Dio vi salvi regina and place candles thinking of Yvan Colonna. And then, we are also here to support his family and the entire Corsican people.”
“Yvan Colonna, we’ve always heard of him, it’s part of our history. Everyone knows him here. We’ve known him since we learned to walk.”
“Me, he continues, I was born in 2005. And the case happened in 1998. Even those who didn’t know him are very touched by his case, because it’s everyone’s struggle. He became a brother of all the Corsican people, for his ideas and for his fight. Because from the moment a man puts his life in danger for his ideas, it is more than respectable.”
On a banner, hung on the gates of the prefecture, we read, in Corsica, “Yvan, martyr of the Corsican cause”. It’s time for meditation, confirms to franceinfo an activist from the main independence party, present at this rally.
No demonstration, therefore, but undoubtedly other moments of homage: vigils to salute the memory of the one whom the high school students, gathered in front of the prefecture, consider innocent despite his life sentence for the assassination of the prefect Erignac.