more than 26,600 signatures gathered for a petition against cruises

A petition calling for a ban on cruise ships in Ajaccio, comparable to actions launched in Marseille and around the Mediterranean, passed the milestone of 26,600 signatories on Wednesday, September 7 in a city of around 71,000 inhabitants. “Everywhere discontent is rising and citizens are rising up against mass tourism which is destroying our environment, and in particular against these gigantic cruise ships which are totally anachronistic in our time”reported in a press release the collective Stop Croisières Ajaccio, at the origin of the petition.

This was sent this week to the town hall of Ajaccio, to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) of Corse-du-Sud which manages the port, to the Community of Corsica and to the Presidency of the Republic. , said the group. This mobilization comes after the town hall of Ajaccio called for the institutions and economic actors concerned to find “the solutions to be provided to the nuisances observed and a balance between economic development and environmental protection”.

For the 2022 season, Ajaccio should accommodate some 230 cruise ships, according to the CCI website, i.e. “one to four boats a day” and until “6,000 passengers” daily, regrets the collective. A cruise ship docked for an hour emits as many pollutants as 30,000 vehicles traveling at 30 km/h, according to AtmoSud, an air quality monitoring body in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur.

Discontent against cruises is rising all over the French Mediterranean coast, as was already the case in Spain or Venice (Italy), which has banned large cruise ships in its historic center, classified by Unesco. Corsican independence activists had delayed the docking in Ajaccio of a liner in July, before a demonstration a few days later. The autonomist president of the Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, had admitted in July that “this type of stay on polluting mega-boats does not correspond[ait] not to the axes of sustainable tourism”.