The autonomy of Corsica is not a “taboo” for Valérie Pécresse
On her way to Corsica, Valérie Pécresse, the Republican presidential candidate, said on Thursday she had no “taboo” concerning a statute of autonomy for Corsica, but this would happen within the framework of“A Republic of the Territories” and setting “red lines”.
“It is a real project of Republic of the territories that I want to carry, that is to say effectively the possibility for Corsica to evolve towards a status of autonomy, but this status, it will have to be built over ten years. », explained M.me Pécresse at the beginning of the afternoon in Ajaccio, after having met Gilles Simeoni, the autonomist president of the executive council of Corsica.
“The statutory question is not a priority for me, (…) but I have no taboos and all of this, we will build it together”, immediately added the candidate, emphasizing that for her “the priority question is that of an investment plan” for the island, after “a five-year term of missed opportunities and broken promises” from the state.
“The statutory question is the result of a process of rediscovered trust, in which Corsica in the Republic, Corsica and the State succeed in working together, and that is what, with Gilles Simeoni, we want build up “, said M.me Pécresse, saying he wanted to launch “a decentralization process which will be the most ambitious that the Republic has known since the Defferre laws” from 1982.
The presidential candidate, however, recalled her “a few red lines” concerning this possible Corsican autonomy, namely “The co-official status of the Corsican language.” [avec le français], which would be an attack on a one and indivisible nation, and the status of residence, [qui] would undermine the indivisibility of the nation”.
These two points are however part of the four priorities defended by the Corsican nationalists since their arrival in power on the island, in 2015, within the framework of their demand for a “full-fledged and full-fledged autonomous status”.
Regarding the Corsican language, Valérie Pécresse stated that it was “very attached to the dissemination of regional languages, to their teaching, because these are our roots, our soils, our territories”.
Speaking after Mme Pécresse, without having heard his statement to the press, Mr. Simeoni explained that he had told him of the need for presidential candidates to “take into account the reaffirmed vote of the Corsicans” and “the expression of universal suffrage” who brought the nationalists to power in the island.