After the intrusion on Thursday morning October 27 into its hemicycle of around fifty activists defending so-called political prisoners, the Assembly of Corsica suspended its session for ten hours before voting a “resolutioncalling on the state to negotiate on the situation of these detainees.
The Corsican elected officials began a cycle of meetings with the State in July on the future of the island, including institutional, following a proposal by the Minister of the Interior Gérard Darmanin, after the fatal attack in prison of Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life imprisonment for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac. The text of the resolution, which was adopted unanimously after being presented for validation to the demonstrators who had joined the stands, indicates in particular that the Assembly of Corsica and the executive council “aspire to continue (this) dialogue process in peaceful conditions“. But for that, they ask the state “political acts” of “way to create the conditions for the resumption of the current process“.
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Pushes and insults
“Recalling that in the contemporary history of Corsica, political negotiations have always taken into account the issue of prisoners“, they call for “the discussion process undertaken between Corsica and the State integrates this issue in all its dimensions – return to freedom, pecuniary sentences, Fijait (file of perpetrators of terrorist offences: editor’s note), logic of appeasement towards young people with participated in the demonstrations last spring-“. They wish “a meeting on this issue“with the government”as soon as possible, from November 2022“.
The intrusion of the demonstrators around 11:00 am in the hemicycle of the Assembly of Corsica in Ajaccio had given rise to jostling and a few blows and insults. The session of the Assembly of Corsica, where more than two thirds of elected officials are nationalists, was then suspended. A spokeswoman for the collective Ora di u Ritornu (Time to return in Corsican language: Editor’s note), which brings together associations for the defense of so-called political prisoners – a qualification not recognized by the French state – and former prisoners, but also trade union and political organizations, had then read to the elected representatives the demands that the collective wished to submit to the vote of the Assembly.
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They stated in particular:that the search for a way out of the crisis and the continuation of the process“ongoing negotiations with Paris on the future of the island”cannot (could) be conceived by evading the issue of prisoners whose release must be seen as the prelude to a real political solution“. The collective also wanted the Assembly of Corsica “undertakes to suspend the ongoing negotiation process subject to a strong act on the part of the State concerning the release of political prisoners“.
After more than ten hours of discussions between the different political groups, the Assembly session resumed Thursday evening at 9:25 p.m. in order to vote on the “resolutionread by the President of the Assembly, the autonomist Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis. The session of the Assembly, which was to consider Thursday in particular the vote on an additional budget for the community of Corsica for 2022, then resumed its work to deal with several files before the examination of the budget on Friday.