France talks pave way towards Corsica's autonomy
Corsicans have long wanted more say on their own affairs, as well as official status for their language and protection from outsiders buying up land -- two thorny requests that Paris has been reluctant to grant.
France's government and elected officials from Corsica have agreed on the wording for granting autonomy to the Mediterranean island, a region that often chafes at rule from Paris, they said Tuesday.
President Emmanuel Macron in September set a six-month deadline to find a way to give the island "a form of autonomy".
Corsicans have long wanted more say on their own affairs, as well as official status for their language and protection from outsiders buying up land -- two thorny requests that Paris has been reluctant to grant.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and Corsican officials in the early hours of Tuesday said they had agreed on wording to be added in the constitution.
"This constitutional text foresees the recognition of a status of autonomy for Corsica within the (French) republic that takes into account its own interests linked to it being a Mediterranean island, its historic, linguistic and cultural community having developed singular ties to its land," a first line read.
Darmanin said both sides had also agreed that "laws and regulations can be adapted" on the island.
"We have taken a step towards autonomy" but "there is no separation between Corsica and the republic," Darmanin said.
They had made no mention of the Corsican language becoming official, he said.
Darmanin said that registered voters in Corsica would be consulted on the plan, as would the island's parliament in Ajaccio, which is currently controlled by nationalists.
Corsica's executive council president Gilles Simeoni, an advocate for autonomy, hailed it as a "decisive step".
"The principle of a legislative power submitted to oversight from the Constitutional Council" in Paris had clearly been defined, he said.
But he said they still needed to hammer out the finer details of how this regional legislature would operate.
"We're in the semi-finals. We still need to win the semi-finals and the finals," he said, using a football metaphor.
Once the text in its final form has been approved by the Corsican parliament, it will then be submitted to a vote by the lower-house National Assembly and upper-house Senate in Paris.
Only if they both give it a green light will it then move on to a combined vote of both houses, in which it will need three-fifths of votes to be enacted.
Corsica shot to the top of the French political agenda in 2022 when widespread protests broke out on the island over the killing in a mainland prison of prominent separatist figure Yvan Colonna.
Colonna -- jailed for life over the 1998 murder of the region's prefect Claude Erignac -- was stabbed to death by another inmate.
