Yannick Jadot, environmental candidate for the presidential election, called on Monday, January 31, for “a status of full autonomy and full exercise” for Corsica, after a meeting with the autonomist president of the executive council , Gilles Simeoni, in Bastia.
“You know, environmentalists are regionalists and particularly for Corsica, there is a need today to build a strong relationship, a peaceful relationship between the French State, France and Corsica, and that requires a status of “full autonomy, full exercise”, declared to Agence France-Presse the candidate EELV, visiting the Mediterranean island.
“We have an extraordinary opportunity since we have a five-year term coming up, we have a mandate that started at community level and these five years precisely to build this status, to negotiate it, to look at the skills that remain sovereign, the common skills, the exclusive skills that we must strengthen for the community of Corsica”, he added.
I want to build a strong, peaceful and trusting relationship with Corsica. The state’s distrust of Corsica must end.
I would like a status of full autonomy so that the Corsicans live their identity and protect this exceptional island. #Let’s change
—Yannick Jadot (@yjadot) January 31, 2022
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“A history, a language, a culture, a pride”
“Today, there is a delay in infrastructure in Corsica, there are major issues in terms of territorial continuity […] on the control of water, waste, we can clearly see the importance for all regions in France of having dynamic taxation, so all of this must enter into the negotiation of new skills”, detailed Yannick Jadot .
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“There is a Corsican people who have a history, a language, a culture, a pride and which must also be recognized”, he insisted. Asked whether he intended to support Yannick Jadot, Gilles Simeoni indicated that “that was not the objective of this morning’s meeting”. “I do not think that in my capacity as President of the Executive Council of Corsica I have to provide support or to engage my signature, I represent the community of Corsica and I seek to defend the interests of Corsica, to make them take into account in the presidential debate,” he told the media.
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In mid-January, Yannick Jadot had already called for the reconciliation “without delay” in a Corsican prison of three prisoners sentenced for the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac, in 1998, so that they can serve the rest of their sentence there, a claim made by the elected nationalists of the island. Gilles Simeoni won the territorial elections in June by obtaining 40.6% of the votes cast and an absolute majority of 32 seats out of 63 in the island’s assembly.