In the climate of war that the whole world has been experiencing since last February 24, the day of the first Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine, Corsica is also inflamed and becomes the scene of incendiary violence.
People have taken to the streets en masse in various cities of the island and in the last few hours there has even been an assault with a raid on the Ajaccio courthouse.
Local authorities are on high alert for what was currently framed as a protest by the independence activists of the French island triggered by the attempted murder in prison of Yvan Colonna, which took place in the prison of Arles where the man, an independence activist sentenced to life sentence, he was being held. On March 2, Colonna ended up in hospital in very serious condition and is still in a coma.
The sentence he was serving in prison was linked to the assassination of the prefect Claude Érignac, which took place on February 6, 1998 in Ajaccio, for which he had been recognized as the perpetrator. In the prison where he was, Colonna was allegedly attacked by another inmate, an Islamist of Cameroonian origin, in prison for criminal association aimed at preparing acts of terrorism. Between the two there would have been a quarrel on religious issues and the quarrel would have resulted in an attempt to strangle Colonna, who then ended up in a coma.
Two days after these events, the President of the Executive Council of Corsica had declared that the attempted murder of Yvan Colonna was a state scandal and had asked for the appointment of a joint commission of inquiry.
But by now the fuse had been lit and the many shadows on this event, gave way to street protests throughout Corsica.
In Ajaccio, on the evening of 9 March, during a demonstration in solidarity in Colonna with hundreds of activists, fires were set up and some demonstrators broke into the Palace of Justice.
In the following days, the demonstrations also intensified in Bastia, Corte and Ajaccio itself.
The attempted murder of the Corsican independentist seems to have reawakened the ancient dream of the independence of Corsica. And yesterday, Sunday 13 March, the nationalist forces called a demonstration in the city of Bastia, entitled “French Statu Assassinu”, in support of Colonna, for the freedom of the Corsican patriots detained and the recognition of the Corsican people. Riots at the end of the march ended with 67 injured, including 44 policemen.
Today the French Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin will go to Corsica with the intention of “opening a cycle of discussions with the representatives and the living forces of the island”. The government’s positive response to the “requests of Corsican representatives on the island’s institutional, economic, social or cultural future” were taken into consideration, especially those of the President of the Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, a former independence activist elected representative of the island who asks for the special autonomous statute.
The government condemns the acts of violence in recent days and calls for “an immediate return to calm” without which “dialogue cannot begin”.
On Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex attempted to defuse the tension by announcing the end of the statute of “particularly reported detainee” for two other separatists in prison, Pierre Alessandri and Alain Ferrandi, a measure that facilitates the granting of an approach in a prison of the ‘Island