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In brief

Paris urges Corsican parties to strike autonomy deal

Anti-autonomist right rejects will of majority of Corsican Assembly to grant island legislative capacity

 
The Corsican Assembly.
The Corsican Assembly. Author: Cullettività di Corsica
French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmarin has conveyed to the Corsican parties the need to start drafting a proposal for a Statute of Autonomy before the end of February, so it can be voted on by the French Parliament during the first semester of 2024. But the Corsican Assembly maintains considerable differences within, especially on whether Corsica should have legislative powers or not.

Corsican autonomist and pro-independence parties, including the government party Femu a Corsica, argue that the future Statute of Autonomy should recognize the right of the Corsican Assembly to approve its own laws. They recall that legislative powers received 75% of the support of the Corsican Assembly deputies in the vote on the Autonomia report, presented by the Corsican government in June 2023.

But the anti-autonomist right, represented by the Un soffiu novu coalition, rejects this notion. The anti-autonomists say the Statute will have to be approved by the French National Assembly and the Senate. In the latter chamber, their conservative allied groups (Les Républicains and Union Centriste) have a majority.

The French government wants to inscribe Corsica's autonomy in the French Constitution. To do this, and apart from the vote of the National Assembly and the Senate separately before the summer, another vote of the two houses assembled (what is called Congress in France) will be needed during the autumn, in which a three-fifths majority is required.