The main Corsican national party in the Assembly of Corsica (Femu a Corsica, 11 out of 51 AMs) claims the approval of the Plan on Planning and Sustainable Development of Corsica (PADDUC, French acronym) is "a political victory of the Corsican people." The PADDUC earned 38 votes out of a total of 51 in the Assembly of Corsica's plenary session on October 31st. In addition to the pro-autonomy Femu a Corsica, the plan was also supported by pro-independence party Corsica Libera and by almost all members of the island's French leftist parties, who hold a relative majority in the Corsican chamber. French rightist AMs withdrew from the vote as they argued the plan will be unworkable and will hamper Corsica's development.

The plan sets out the main lines of Corsica's economic, social, cultural and tourist development. The aim of the proposal as approved on October 31st is to reconcile the preservation of the island's unique environment, culture, language and identity with the development and management of natural resources.

The adopted plan must now be analyzed by several Corsican public bodies, which are entitled to provide amendment recommendations over the next three months. The PADDUC will then be put into a final vote, again in the Assembly of Corsica.

According to Femu a Corsica, there are four main reasons why the Corsican national movement should be satisfied with the PADDUC: the registration of the notion of the "Corsican people" within the text, the mention of co-official status for the Corsican language, enlarged protection for farmlands and natural areas, and the opening of "dynamic elements of governance."

Corsica Libera meanwhile says the PADDUC approval is sending two messages. On of them is geared towards the island itself: "Speculators and mafiosi will not be the ones who decide the strategy of development," but the "elected representatives of our people." The other message targets Paris: "Corsicans have shown they are able to decide their future themselves."

Corsican national parties believe that the French government should now give an answer to these demands. Official status for Corsican is one of the major points of disagreement. In May 2013, the Corsican Assembly passed a statute granting co-official status to Corsican and French, but it has no law-making powers. The demand is now again included into the PADDUC. But the French government replied that giving Corsican official status -which should be decided by France's National Assembly- "is not possible."

Current plan replaces 2009 PADDUC

The PADDUC has a long and controversial history. In 2009, the French conservative AMs -which at that time held the majority in the Corsican Assembly- submitted a PADDUC proposal that was utterly rejected by several sectors of the island's society, including major Corsican national parties and much of environmental organizations. These sectors argued the plan was not environmentally sustainable and that it further promoted a kind of urban planning not intended for Corsicans, but for outsiders and their second homes.

In June 2009, and realizing that strong opposition, then-President of Corsica Ange Santini withdrew the proposal. The PADDUC then became an important battlefield in the 2010 Corsican election campaign: French conservative parties lost the election and, following the emergence of the French left and the pro-autonomy and pro-independence parties, the PADDUC came to be re-designed from scratch.

Debates on the new PADDUC started in 2010. The French National Assembly gave in 2011 the green light to a law granting the Corsican Assembly the authority to develop and approve the plan. Three years later, the process culminated in an agreement between the island's French left, Femu a Corsica and Corsica Libera, which was approved on October 31st.