Corsica becomes latest European territory to turn nationalist
BASTIA: The French Mediterranean island of Corsica has become the latest European territory to take a nationalist turn, with an unprecedented victory in regional elections that has put independence activists in the seat of power.
“This is the culmination of 40 years of struggle,” said Jean-Pierre Susini, a veteran of a violent insurgency that ended last year.
“I have always called for independence but after 200 years of [French] colonialism ... the nationalists have an enormous amount of work to do,” said Susini, 67, who lives in the small village of Luri among the mountains of northern Corsica.
Susini used to escape to these hills after taking part in attacks by the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FNLC), which led a brutal campaign of bombings and political assassinations from 1976 until it laid down its weapons in June 2014.
But that is the past — today’s nationalists are trying a peaceful approach to power.
Lying just off the coast of Italy, the island of 320,000 inhabitants known for its stunning scenery and as the birthplace of Napoleon, was annexed in 1768.
Now it has followed Scotland and the Spanish region of Catalonia as the latest European territory to elect a nationalist government after regional polls on Dec 13 handed power to a coalition that includes politicians campaigning for outright independence.
“France doesn’t like Corsica. We’re fed up with being governed by people who are racist with their subsidies, their judicial decisions, even with football,” said one fired-up supporter, 35-year-old Karine Pellegrini, in the island’s economic hub of Bastia.
“When Corsicans play, the refereeing is never fair,” she added in disgust.
She looks forward to new nationalist symbols such as Corsican identity cards, and progress on the long-standing demand for political prisoners from the independence movement to be transferred to jails on the island instead of the mainland.
‘In peace and democracy’
But as with other nationalist campaigns around Europe, the new leaders of the movement marry these emotional appeals with more practical concerns.
Corsica’s wildly popular new leader, 48-year-old lawyer Gilles Simeoni, has put the emphasis on day-to-day worries about unemployment, corruption and waste collection.
Simeoni, who was previously mayor of Bastia in northeastern Corsica, takes a middle line on independence, saying the question can be decided later while demanding greater powers and subsidies from the mainland.
“Corsicans will decide,” he told local newspaper Corse-Matin this week.