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Do assembly decisions have any real value? Corsica calls on France to give an answer

Pro-autonomy, pro-independence and French leftist representatives to demonstrate on Saturday to demand official recognition for Corsican, resident status · The march takes place against the background of a debate on how deliberations passed by the island's assembly should be implemented · Pro-independence initiative to seek international support for Corsica's right to decide its own political future

Is it acceptable, in the name of the French Constitution, to fail to implement decisions on the official status for Corsican, on the creation of a resident status, or on an own tax system? Several Corsican political sectors believe it is not. In a rare demonstration on Saturday, they will be demanding solutions from the French government to a situation that brings into question the very essence of the Corsican Assembly.

The demonstration will be a rare event because, despite being called by Ghjuventù Indipendentista -the group that went on a hunger strike in April-, it will be supported not only by Corsica's pro-independence camp, but also by the autonomists (the Party of the Corsican Nation) and by members of the Corsican government such as Maria Guidicelli and Pierre Ghionga, both of them members of the French left in Corsica.

Those political sectors do not usually come together to demonstrate on the streets. But this time they have found a common ground, as Ghjuventù Indipendentista says in its call to demostrate: "To get a real political solution through the implementation of the deliberations voted by the Assembly of Corsica. Democracy, in its simplest expresion, must be respected."

The crux of the matter is the fact that the Corsican Assembly can pass deliberations, but has no legislative powers, which are solely reserved to the French National Assembly. The Corsican chamber approved in 2013 several proposals for political change in the island, including a co-official status for Corsican alongside French, and a resident status that could help fighting property speculation and high housing prices. But the implementation of those measures depend on a subsequent decision later in Paris. And Paris says "no" to that.

Corsican newspaper Corse Matinpublished some days ago an article, "Legislative adaptation: the great disappointment," in which the president of Corsica's commission for legislative and statutory powers, Pierre Chaubon, was asked his opinion on the whole issue. Chaubon is considered to be one of the founding fathers of the aforementioned 2013 proposals. That year, he had said that it "seemed impossible" to him that democratically voted Corsican Assembly proposals would not be taken into account by the French government. Pierre Ghionga had spoken similarly: "I cannot see how the French Republic could oppose a region's democratic will," he argued. But now Chaubon admits that the system cannot work because, in fact, it commits the French state to "nothing," as the powers held by the Corsican institutions are more fictitious than real.

Pro-independence group seeks international support for a "Corsican way"

Apart from participating in Saturday's demonstration, the pro-independence camp has just unveiled the so-called Corsica Initiative, a "network of information, support and reconciliation for a democratic resolution for the Corsican question." The network's aim is to "put the Corsican process into an international perspective of respect for the rights of peoples to freely decide their political, social, economic and cultural future."

Corsican Initiative will be holding its first international debate on Friday 12th -just the day before the demonstration- under the name "A Corsican way for the XXI century." Participants, among others, include former French Prime Minister Michel Rocard, former Aosta Valley President Robert Louvin, and former Catalan Vice President Josep-Lluís Carod-Rovira.