The visit had been promised this summer, but the person concerned was slow to decide on the date. Emmanuel Macron will finally land this Wednesday evening, September 27 on the tarmac of Campo dell’Oro airport, in Ajaccio. A fast-paced visit, during which the Head of State will tour the capital of Corsica, as well as the city of Bastia. On the Isle of Beauty, the president will follow in the footsteps of his socialist predecessors. Like François Mitterrand, in 1993, and François Hollande in 2013, Emmanuel Macron will participate in a “memorial sequence”, on the occasion of the commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Corsica. A visit simply focused on the past? “When we go to Corsica, even when we do memorials, there is always an element of politics,” sweeps the Élysée.
Emmanuel Macron can, for example, reread the speeches of his contemporaries. “What would you do without us? What would we do without you?” François Mitterrand insisted, while the island was in the grip of violence between nationalists. Twenty years later, François Hollande also had to, among other things, decide on the co-officiality of the Corsican and French languages. There is no doubt that the current tenant of the Élysée will be expected to address these questions, two months after the majority adoption by the Corsican Assembly of the deliberation on the status of autonomy. The latter provides in particular that the territory can adopt its own laws in all areas, except in that of the sovereign, the legal recognition of the Corsican people, the co-officiality of the language as well as the creation of a resident status for the islanders. The head of state should clarify his positions Thursday morning, before the Corsican assembly.
“With Emmanuel Macron, relations are complex”
The visit of the President of the Republic to the Isle of Beauty follows that of Gérald Darmanin, on September 13 and 14. As usual, since the riots that engulfed Corsica following the assassination of Yvan Colonna in March 2022, it is the Minister of the Interior who has been sent as a scout to take the pulse of the islanders . Once again, he discussed the institutional future of the island in the company of elected officials. “If there is institutional development, it is not for pleasure, it is because we would collectively consider that without it, we cannot improve the lives of Corsicans,” he declared in particular. Eighteen months earlier, at the heart of the crisis, the tenant of Beauvau already affirmed that the government was “ready to go as far as autonomy”. “He is a fairly pleasant person, elected officials do not necessarily have a problem with him. Relations with Emmanuel Macron, on the other hand, are still more complex,” regrets those around him. Gilles Simeoni, president of the Executive Council of the local authority. “If he uttered the term ‘autonomy’, it is because the President of the Republic authorized him to do so,” whispers the island majority member, Laurent Marcangeli (Horizons).
But faced with the Corsican problem, Emmanuel Macron showed several faces. Launched a number of promises. Showed hesitation, too, and uttered a few unfortunate sentences. There was this Emmanuel Macron Girondin, candidate in 2017, who quoted, to Furiani, former Prime Minister Michel Rocard (“Jacobins, don’t kill peace!”), promising to be “clear, open and pragmatic ” on the institutional developments of the island. There is also this rigid Macron of 2018 who, two months after the start of talks on the constitutional unblocking of Corsica, brushed aside the demands of elected officials by refusing to include the autonomy of the community in the Constitution. There was also, a month earlier on the occasion of the commemorations of the death of Claude Érignac, this same clumsy president who declared that his murder “cannot be pleaded” – a statement that was not insignificant to make. stand before Gilles Simeoni, former lawyer of Yvan Colonna. Finally, there was this head of state, a bit of bravado, who, in 2019 at the close of the great debate in Cozzano, enjoined “those who today want to defend Corsican identity” to do “memorial work” and to express “regrets” over the assassination of this same prefect. During this first five-year term, relationships became strained and the distance was complete; the promise of constitutional reform is buried by the crisis of the yellow vests and the Covid. Jean-Félix Aquaviva, nationalist deputy from the Liot group, believed he saw “the temptation to save time”.
The three red lines
“There were delays, misunderstandings and blockages on both sides,” regrets Laurent Marcangeli. “This first mandate was not successful.” The ballot boxes bear witness to this: in May 2022, the candidate for his succession was soundly beaten in Corsica by Marine Le Pen, who collected nearly 58% of the votes, or 9 points more than in 2017. But for this second five-year term Emmanuel Macron, the context has changed. The assassination of Yvan Colonna, on the eve of the first round of the presidential election, played a large part in the resumption of talks for almost a year and a half. “There is also a democratic fact: the autonomists sent three deputies out of four to the National Assembly, one senator to the 2020 senatorial elections, and have controlled the Corsican executive council since 2015. The president must take this into account,” continues Laurent Marcangeli .
For this new visit to the Isle of Beauty, Emmanuel Macron is therefore walking on eggshells. Satisfy Corsican autonomy demands, while presenting a constitutional reform project sufficiently consensual to be endorsed by the Senate by the end of 2024. The exercise is perilous. However, the autonomists want to believe that the appearance of the President of the Republic in the regional assembly is synonymous with an agreement reached. Ahead of the visit, the Élysée set its red lines: the co-officiality of the Corsican language as well as the drafting of a resident status for the islanders. Two of the four main demands of elected officials, written in black and white in last July’s deliberation.