Emmanuel Macron proposed this Thursday to recognize the historical, linguistic, insular and Mediterranean uniqueness of Corsica in the French Constitution. In a speech before the island's Assembly, in Ajaccio, the French president advocated for a broader autonomy than the current one, but "not an autonomy against the State or without the State", with the novelty that he would have regulatory capacity over the transferred subjects.
The head of state established a period of six months for the Corsican political forces to agree on a text, which should be submitted to a referendum on the island and then voted by the National Assembly and the Senate in Paris. According to Macron, progress is needed because "the status quo would be a failure for everyone."
Macron spoke on several occasions about "building Corsican autonomy", adapted to his needs. He did not mention the thorny issue of the co-official status of Corsican, which the nationalists demand and which Paris refuses to accept because it considers French to be the language of the Republic. The head of state has no problem accepting bilingualism, although not co-officiality.
On another conflictive issue, the so-called "resident status", an old demand of Corsican nationalism, Macron did not expressly mention it although he said he was in favor of a fiscal device to fight against real estate speculation and regulate a distorted market that complicates life for the native population.
Macron highlighted the State's investment effort in Corsica in recent years and the importance of continuing to combat organized crime, one of the scourges of the island. He also pampered the Corsican soul by remembering that 80 years ago Corsica was the first territory liberated from invaders - Italian and later German - during World War II. "Here, no Jews were denounced and the Corsicans protected them," he added, without adding that this was not the case in Pétain's collaborationist France.
Macron was preceded on the rostrum by the president of the Assembly, Marie Antoinette Maupertuis, and the head of the Corsican Executive, Gilles Simeoni. Both are autonomists and reproached the French State for the long blockade of the Corsican question, which has caused a lot of frustration and incomprehension. Simeoni stressed that there must be "a solution within the Republic", although he warned that, if things remain the same, there is a danger of "irreversible events" occurring, without specifying what he was referring to.
