Eleven college and high school establishments out of a total of 47 were concerned on Monday March 7 across Corsica by “blocks and attempted blocksled by students in support of independence activist Yvan Colonna, the rectorate told AFP.
Read alsoCorsica: thousands of demonstrators flock to Corte in support of Yvan Colonna, attacked in prison
The independence activist Yvan Colonna, imprisoned in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône) for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, was violently attacked by a fellow prisoner on Wednesday. Since then, he has been between life and death, treated in a Marseille hospital.
Monday, day of recovery after the school holidays, high schools in Ajaccio, Sartène (Corse-du-Sud), Corte (Haute-Corse), Bastia, Ile Rousse, Prunelli di Fiumorbu (Haute-Corse), Porto-Vecchio (Corse-du-Sud) are affected by blockages or attempted blockages, as well as two colleges in Ajaccio and one in Calvi (Haute-Corse), detailed a spokesperson for the rectorate. “For the vast majority of these establishments, a passage is left to students wishing to go to class“, she clarified, adding that”there are no particular tensions“. “The management teams of the educational establishments make every effort to maintain the reception of the pupils and the course of the lessons in a logic of dialogue and appeasement.“, also indicated the rectorate.
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“murderous French state”
In front of the Laetitia high school in Ajaccio, posters in the Corsican language have been fixed to the gates: “support for Yvan Colonna” Where “Ava Basta(That’s enough) and garbage containers and pallets block the main entrance, noted an AFP journalist. Depending on the establishment, students can nevertheless access the high school by other entrances and the courses are for the time being assured. In front of the Fesch high school, in the center of Ajaccio, a handwritten banner bears the inscription in Corsican “murderous french state“. According to the establishment,there are no classes and no one comes in or out“. At the Paul Vincensini high school in Bastia and at the Pascal Paoli school complex in Corte, classes are currently “insured“.
The University of Corsica in Corte is still blocked, Rachel Reggeti Giudicelli, president of the nationalist student union Ghjuventu Indipendentista (GI), told AFP on Monday. It has been blocked since Thursday, the day when the three nationalist student unions Ghjuventu Paolina (GP), Ghjuventu Indipendentista (GI) and Cunsulta di a Ghjuventu Corsa, decided to call for a large demonstration on Sunday in Corte which gathered 4,200 people according to the authorities and 15,000 according to the organizers and was peppered with clashes with the police.