2023-09-28 16:49:05
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday proposed granting limited autonomy to Corsica, a modest step toward nationalist sentiment on the Mediterranean island.
In a speech he described as “an outstretched hand,” Macron said: “Let us have the audacity to build Corsican autonomy within the republic.”
“It will not be autonomy against the State nor autonomy without the State, but autonomy for Corsica and within the republic,” he declared in his speech before the island’s elected local assembly.
The island has more than 340,000 inhabitants and has been part of France since 1768. But Corsica has also been the scene of independence violence and has an influential nationalist movement. In 1998, in a murder that shocked the country, pro-independence activists shot dead the top French official on the island, Claude Érignac. The rest of the violence has been low-level, often with bombs placed in cars or buildings at night, when no one is inside.
Macron did not go into great detail about what powers could be transferred from Paris to a more autonomous Corsica. He said he is in favor of changing the French Constitution to recognize “the specificities” of the island community of Corsica. A constitutional change would require approval by the French Parliament.
“This way we will turn a page that was marked by dark hours and we will be able to open another one,” Macron said.
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