How far will the political escalation go? In a virulent press conference organized Thursday at the assembly of Corsica, the president of the executive council opted for a strategy of rupture with the government. His attacks are primarily aimed at the prefect of Corsica on the departure Pascal Lelarge with whom a standoff has been engaged for several months.
“M. Lelarge, who had just learned the same morning that he was no longer prefect of Corsica, emptied the coffers of the Corsica community (CDC) like a thief, in a clandestine manner”, thundered Gilles Simeoni in front of the press. Brandishing a letter he sent last week to the Prime Minister, he pleaded for a negotiation of the payment of this interest. Or sharing the settlement with the government. A letter that remained unanswered according to him.
“Mr. Lelarge emptied the coffers of the CDC like a thief”
According to Gilles Simeoni, who returned in December with political victories, the government is not keeping its announcements, won after four months of negotiations. Among them, the settlement of the sum of 50 million euros to contribute to the payment of the fine due to Corsica Ferries. This weighs 86.3 million euros and is the result of a conviction by the CDC for the illegal subsidization of SNCM from 2007 to 2013 to the detriment of the company with the yellow ships.
“We paid the principal and we had to discuss the interests because in law, these represent time or bad faith and can be negotiated with the creditor”, continues Gilles Simeoni. While questioning whether this “scandalous attitude” and unprecedented in forty years has been “wanted or is warranted” by the state. He publicly asks the government for a response with the next session of the assembly, on February 24 and 25.
For his part, the prefect of Corsica recalled that he behaved like a “bailiff” who was only carrying out the procedure initiated on December 9, 2021. The free and brittle tone of Pascal Lelarge which contrasts with the usual reserve of State servants and his management of files where he liked to recall that he held the notebook checks, had led the nationalists to demand his head.
Did they trumpet the name of his successor, Franck Robine, too much in the press? Current advisor to the Prime Minister, he had been prefect of Corsica six months before the first crisis called him back to the parent company. And was notoriously national-compatible. Too much, no doubt?
Be that as it may, the prefect of Corsica Pascal Lelarge affirms it: until March 7, the date on which he will be replaced by Amaury de Saint-Quentin, he is still the resident of the Lantivy palace. During the litigation, in the fall, he tackled the nationalists: “No need to talk, to gesticulate, you have to pay”, he said in the press. He says today “outraged” by the attacks of which he is the target “We work for Corsica and in the interest of Corsicans”.
This additional tension aggravates the divorce between Emmanuel Macron and Corsica, which has never seen the color of the Girondin pact that he announced in 2017. But the displayed strategy of rupture put forward by the president of the executive also questions in the ranks of the opposition. Does Gilles Simeoni have a method problem? In any case, according to Jean-Christophe Angelini, we cannot permanently play the break with the State.
Since his re-election by an absolute majority in June 2021, he had resumed the path of discussion with Paris. Rid of his annoying allies, Corsica Libera and the PNC, Gilles Simeoni dealt directly with the Elysée who did not want waves for the presidential election. It missed. The files put forward by the executive, bringing together the prisoners of the Erignac commando, maritime service, status of autonomy are down.
Gilles Simeoni is now considering the possibility of appealing to compulsory payment. For his part, MP Jean-Félix Acquaviva, who today describes the government as “huckster” wondered about the possibility of an oral question to the government in the National Assembly.
The relationship between Corsica and Paris could therefore again experience a new period of political storm.