Franceinfo was able to verify on Monday March 28 the place, date and time of the recording of a video showing CRS singing The Marseillaise in the barracks of Furiani, in Haute-Corse, Friday March 25 around 3 p.m., when the funeral of Yvan Colonna began in Cargèse, in Corse-du-Sud. A franceinfo journalist present in Corsica was able to verify these elements concerning one of the three videos circulating on social networks, showing men in civilian clothes grouped together in front of buildings and seeming to sing the French national anthem.
The franceinfo journalist went right next to this Furiani cantonment and met a person who filmed the scene. He was able to consult the video recording data that smartphones attach to each photo or video. According to the data displayed, the video was indeed recorded on March 25, 2022 at 2:59 p.m., only a few seconds before 3 p.m. We see and distinctly hear these men singing in the CRS barracks. Another video shows these same men singing the rhyme Lark, nice lark.
The person who filmed works near the cantonment. She explains to be “apolitical” but have “wrong” experienced the scene, because the Corsicans have a strong culture of “respect for the dead” : “I find it unacceptable that we start singing The Marseillaise at the precise moment when the religious ceremony begins. whatever did [Yvan Colonna]it must be respected.”
She released her video only after the publication of a first showing the same scene but from another angle, from the building opposite. This first video was notably relayed by Yvan Colonna’s sister and has been viewed several thousand times. But netizens said it was a “fake”. This is what motivated her to share her own video. “I didn’t want to broadcast it at the base, because I told myself that if it ignites the powder and that afterwards there are injured or dead, I don’t want to take this responsibility. “she explains to franceinfo.
“I read so much everywhere that it was false that I absolutely had to testify because it was very very shocking.”
The author of one of the CRS videos in Furianiat franceinfo
“I do not condone violence, pursue that person. I do not endorse the fact that the demonstrators burned the French flag, in the same way that I do not at all endorse the fact that the CRS sang The Marseillaise at the start of the funeral. I saw what they did as a provocation. It’s time for calm. We want things to calm down, it was not smart to do that.”
The person met by franceinfo says he did not hear the CRS pronounce the name of Yvan Colonna nor say the sentence “They got it!”relayed on social networks by the sister of the separatist but which is not audible in any of the three videos. “That don’t mean they didn’t say itshe comments. There were people who shouted, asked them to stop and some, it made them laugh. She also claims to have never heard the CRS sing before, even though she has been working in the same place for years.
Franceinfo was able to contact another witness, who affirms that the CRS precisely began to sing around 3 p.m., the time of the start of the funeral. A union source denies this information to franceinfo. According to her, the CRS sang that day from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. This union source showed franceinfo a video shot by one of the CRS, from the cantonment. It shows several police officers seated, eating in peace. Some are singing. The twenty CRS present at that time are therefore not singing, only a handful.
Franceinfo was able to confirm from police sources that a barbecue had been organized in this CRS cantonment on Friday, but these sources ensure that it had no connection with the funeral of Yvan Colonna. “It’s not about provocation. It was a cohesion meal on a rest day”assures Thierry Clair, deputy secretary general of the Unsa police union, to franceinfo. Another union source assures that, for the CRS, it is customary to organize “meals of the body” on non-working days, during their missions.
“As in all body meals, there are traditionally songs that are sung, including the national anthem”
Thierry Clair, secretary general Unsa policeat franceinfo
He therefore asserts that there is no “no relation” between the funeral and the songs. Thus, despite the concomitance between this song and the time of Yvan Colonna’s funeral, nothing proves that the CRS wanted to sing The Marseillaise to celebrate the funeral of the Corsican nationalist, assassin of the prefect Claude Erignac, who died after a violent attack by a fellow prisoner. Contacted, neither the Ministry of the Interior nor the communication service of the national police wanted to comment.