Death of an icon of Corsican separatism

Yvan Colonna, 61 years old, was rotting in Arles prison. With the help of his accomplices, Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, it was he himself who put three shots in the back of the head of the prefect of Corsica, Claude Erignac. It was 6 February 1998, and the man who represented the French state on the island was attending a concert with his wife and without an bodyguard. He has now died as a result of a brutal beating by another prisoner, of Cameroonian origin, on 2 March.

Since the attack, demonstrations and incidents have multiplied in Corsica, which President Emmanuel Macron's government has tried to placate by sending its Interior Minister to the island with a promise to grant the island the special autonomous status it has been demanding for half a century.

It is possible that this time Corsica will get it, which would in a way represent a posthumous achievement for Colonna, made by his supporters into the main icon of his quest for independence. A maximalist aspiration, which nevertheless now accounts for barely 15% of the 300,000 inhabitants of this island, the fourth largest in the Mediterranean, which was incorporated into France in 1768 after declaring independence from the Republic of Genoa in 1729. Corsican was Napoleon Bonaparte, who before setting fire to the whole of Europe, from Cadiz to Moscow, took it upon himself to crush all separatist attempts by his countrymen.

The upsurge in separatism intensified as a result of the unstoppable advance of German troops and the occupation of France. Both Brittany and Corsica saw this as an opportunity to shake off the tutelage of Paris and began to collaborate with the invaders. The defeat of Nazism would mean the corresponding purge of all separatists and the accentuation of Parisian centralism in the administration of France.

The outcome of the Algerian war, 60 years ago, also had a decisive influence on the resurgence of Corsican separatism. In 1975, autonomist militants led by Edmond Simeoni stormed a wine cellar in Aléria, in the eastern part of the island. The pretext was to protest against the winemaking methods introduced by the "pied-noirs" (French repatriates from Algeria), who had been given land to rebuild their lives. 

At the time, Valery Giscard d'Estaing was President of the Republic, Jacques Chirac was Prime Minister and Michel Poniatowski was Minister of the Interior. The latter imposed an iron fist: he sent 1,200 CRS (Republican Security Companies) to the island, with their corresponding helicopters and armoured vehicles. A show of force that resulted in only two deaths, but with the feeling among French television viewers at the time that they were witnessing a violent episode of the Civil War. Yvan Colonna was fifteen years old at the time, and those images were to drive him to embrace the pro-independence cause, join the Maquis and participate in the planning and commission of numerous attacks. The National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) would, for example, plant 463 bombs throughout France in 1980, one of them in the Paris City Hall. 

Colonna, the well-to-do bourgeois, son of Jean-Hugues and Cécile, both gymnastics teachers, with an affluent social position and fond of the most elite sporting activities, went underground, with no fixed abode and more or less intensely pursued by the forces in charge of fighting terrorism.

Having achieved his goal of attacking Prefect Erignac, arrested after a relentless pursuit and finally convicted after three trials, Colonna died - an irony of fate - as a result of a beating by a sub-Saharan immigrant, a condition incompatible with his strong sense of identity.

With the death of the main icon of an increasingly residual separatism, it remains to be seen whether the French government will agree to extend Corsica's autonomist powers. Gilles Simeoni, an "autonomist" separatist, son of the violent occupier of the cellar in Aléria, is the current president of the island's Executive Council, backed by Jean-Guy Talamoni, a "pro-independence" separatist and president of the Corsican Assembly.

Both demand the co-officiality of the Corsican language; a resident status that prevents French people from acquiring property on the island if they do not actually live and pay taxes there; an amnesty for "political prisoners", who are serving long prison sentences in prisons in mainland France; and constitutional recognition of Corsica's specificity.

President Emmanuel Macron has already refused on his first official visit to recognise any official language other than French. Nor did he admit a Resident Status "because it would be contrary to the French Constitution and European law". He refused to allow Corsica's tax revenue to remain entirely on the island, because "this would discriminate against the rest of France's regions". On the other hand, he opened the door to recognising the uniqueness of Corsica in the Constitution, "because of its geography and its specificities", but without exaggerating, "because this is not New Caledonia".

We will see how much he changes from that speech three years ago, especially if he is re-elected President of the Republic. It is true that even then he spurred the Corsicans to look a little beyond the island's borders: "Corsica has to choose: either to maintain a confrontation with the Republic that has sometimes been ruinous and sterile, or to look to the future. Being part of the fifth world power is an unprecedented advantage. Make the most of it". On that occasion, ten flags formed the backdrop to his speech: five French and five European Union flags. None of them bore the characteristic "Moorish head" of the Corsican ensign.