Corsica’s proposed autonomy within the French Republic has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle, with lawmakers backing a constitutional reform that could give the island new powers while leaving key state authority in Paris.
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The National Assembly’s law committee approved the bill on Tuesday, keeping alive a reform that would give Corsica new powers to adapt some French laws to local conditions while remaining within France.
The text will be debated in the full chamber from 16 June, with a vote expected on 23 June, before moving to the Senate later in the year.
The push for autonomy follows a crisis in March 2022, when Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna was fatally attacked by another prisoner in a jail in the southern French city of Arles.
The assault triggered days of unrest on the island and prompted the government to reopen discussions about Corsica’s future status.
“We are ready to go as far as autonomy,” Darmanin told the Corsican daily newspaper Corse-Matin at the time.
Two years of negotiations later, Paris and Corsican elected officials agreed on a proposal for “an autonomous Corsica within the republic”.
A new status?
The bill would create a new article in France’s constitution recognising Corsica’s historical, linguistic and cultural community. It would also refer to the island’s particular link with the land.
The proposal stops short of independence. Justice, policing, defence and currency would remain under state control.
The biggest change would be that Corsica could gain the power to adapt some French laws and regulations to local needs. It could also be allowed to set some of its own rules in areas such as waste management, urban planning and housing.
The reform does not spell out exactly which areas would fall under those new powers. That would be decided later in another law passed by parliament.
“The scope of this reform is not entirely clear, except that Corsica could adapt or take measures of a legislative nature,” public law lecturer Benjamin Morel of Paris-Pantheon-Assas University told RFI.
“But as the text does not specify in which areas, we don’t know what room for manoeuvre Corsica’s authorities would have. That is one of the major difficulties.”
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Political fault lines
The committee adopted an amendment making clear that sovereign state powers could not be included in future adaptations. It also backed a mandatory consultation of Corsican voters on the island’s future autonomous status.
Lawmakers changed one symbolic phrase in the bill, replacing a reference to Corsica’s link with “its land” with “the land”.
The debate exposed deep divisions.
Centrist lawmakers, parts of the left, Greens and representatives from France’s overseas territories backed the text. The conservative Republicans party opposed it, while the far-right National Rally and the left-wing France Unbowed (LFI) party abstained.
“Political groups will set red lines,” Morel said. “The first is legislative autonomy. In French law, it is associated with a colonial status. The second is that the text recognises particular rights linked to a cultural identity.”
The proposal could raise questions about people who do not share that cultural identity, whether they come from mainland France or another country, Morel added. Such an approach could create legal and political problems for some groups.
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More votes to come
Left-wing and Green lawmakers failed to add a clause preventing future Corsican rules from weakening social or environmental protections.
François-Xavier Ceccoli, a conservative MP representing Haute-Corse in northern Corsica, also failed to pass an amendment giving the National Assembly oversight of legislative measures adopted by the Corsican parliament.
“Parliament must be able to safeguard Corsica’s future,” Ceccoli told the committee. “Every deputy and senator today is part of the bulwark protecting the island from those who seek to exploit it.”
Françoise Gatel, who represented the government during the committee debate, urged deputies not to settle for “paper autonomy”.
He said: “That would be the worst of promises, strong in symbolism and weak in law. This text must avoid two pitfalls: autonomy that cannot be found and autonomy that cannot be controlled.”
If approved by the National Assembly and Senate, the reform would still need the backing of three-fifths of French lawmakers meeting in Congress at Versailles. Corsican voters would then be consulted before it could take effect.
(with newswires)
