In Corsica, Pursuing Autonomy by Other Means

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/01/world/europe/in-corsica-pursuing-autonomy-by-other-means.html

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AJACCIO, Corsica — The good news on the French island of Corsica last week was the declaration by the National Liberation Front of Corsica that it was laying down its arms and abandoning a 38-year armed struggle for Corsican independence.

For the more than 300,000 people who live on the Mediterranean island, any respite from violence is welcome. Since 1976, Corsica has been the site of more than 10,000 acts of violence — almost half claimed by clandestine nationalist groups such as the front — which included assassinations, armed assaults and “blue nights,” the graphic shorthand for multiple bombings of public buildings and vacation houses.

Olive branch or ruse? A sign of weakness or of maturity? Since the June 25 publication of the front’s 14-page communiqué, Corsicans have been trying to figure out what to make of the shadowy group’s surprising call for the opening of “new perspectives in our march toward sovereignty.”

As France prepares to redraw its political map, trimming the number of regions from 22 to 14, Corsica’s special status has again been thrown into relief. If other French regions gain more powers, how will this island, with its history of violent defiance, be able to distinguish itself from the “Continent”?

What is clear is that the next battle over Corsica’s future will be mainly fought in the political arena, where nationalists, allied since 2010 with members of traditional French parties, have succeeded in dominating a debate that has put the island on a collision course with the French government.

Jean-Guy Talamoni, a leading nationalist, described the political shift. “Something incredible has happened in Corsica in the last three years,” Mr. Talamoni, the president of the Corsica Libera party, told the newspaper Corse-Matin last week. “The ideas which we have carried alone for decades as a minority have become mainstream.”

The clearest example was a vote taken at the Corsican Assembly in April, when representatives approved a three-part agenda designed to broaden and deepen Corsica’s autonomous status. The so-called triptych calls for the adoption of Corsican as a second language on the island, equal to French; a five-year residency requirement for the purchase of property; and a reference to Corsica’s unique status of limited autonomy.

All three measures have been rejected by the French government as unconstitutional and well beyond the authority of local legislators. Changes to the Constitution require a three-fifths majority of both houses of the French Parliament — a highly unlikely outcome.

Senator Nicolas Alfonsi, a longtime opponent of radical Corsican nationalists who will retire in September after two terms as a representative of southern Corsica, believes the nationalists’ agenda has remained unchanged.

“The nationalists abandoned violence for a strategic choice to proceed by democratic means,” he said in an interview. “The theme of autonomy is not actually mentioned in the debates, but the proposals which have been voted are a way to get there indirectly.”

Mr. Alfonsi contends that Corsican politicians are using nationalist themes to advance their own interests. “There are no collective ambitions here, only personal interests,” he said. “Corsican society is rife with connivance, abstention and the unspoken. It doesn’t reveal itself, and in this scenario, there can be no collective project.”

In the last decade, the rivalry between nationalist groups has morphed into criminal competition over economic interests, including property development and racketeering. Killings and bombings are now more likely to be criminal than terrorist in nature, a blurry distinction that still makes Corsica one of the most murderous regions of Europe.

Paradoxically, Corsica, whose economy depends on tourism, has been able to protect its stunning beaches and forested mountains from overdevelopment, in part because of its reputation for violence. But there are better ways to run an economy and protect the environment, Mr. Alfonsi said.

“Instead of managing local problems, the debate of the last years has been focused on questions of language, residency and status,” said Mr. Alfonsi. “In this way, we have created a situation that doesn’t exist so we can propose a virtual solution to solve it.”