Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin explained on Wednesday to Corsican mayors, meeting in a general assembly in Ajaccio, that he was present to prepare for the planned arrival at the end of September of President Emmanuel Macron.
“I am responsible for telling you that I am preparing the trip of the President of the Republic who will come to the Isle of Beauty at the end of September,” declared the minister.
The president will come on the occasion of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Corsica and he “will have the opportunity to speak before you, before the Corsicans, on the perhaps provisional conclusions of a year of institutional discussions “, he clarified.
Gérald Darmanin wishes to “report directly to the President of the Republic what (them) think is important or not to put forward”.
“We have two (red) lines: Corsica in the Republic and not two categories of citizens on the national territory but between these two lines, there is an immense possibility and an immense field of evolution,” he said. assured.
“If there is institutional development, it is not for pleasure”, “it is because we would collectively consider that without that, we cannot improve the lives of Corsicans”, added the minister, specifying that evolution could go “as far as the production of the standard, what some call autonomy”.
“We must take advantage of this moment not only to carry out institutional reform but to simplify,” he said, believing that there is “a poor institutional organization” and that it is “undoubtedly necessary to imagine something something simpler, more effective.
“What interests me for the Corsicans”, “alongside legislative, political autonomy which still remains to be discussed”, “it is agricultural autonomy, it is energy autonomy, it is avoiding “send your waste to other countries”, listed Gérald Darmanin.
“Politics is not the ideal (..) it is always feasible,” he also warned, recalling that it is necessary to “adopt an institutional political compromise by 3/5ths of Congress “.
“We are experiencing a moment that we know is special, an important and certainly decisive moment,” declared for his part the autonomist president of the executive council Gilles Simeoni, assuring that “both” have made “the essential efforts so that the peace, which is precious, is rooted” and “we have the desire to build together a perspective which is that of progress, development and emancipation”.
After the fatal attack in prison in 2022 of independence activist Yvan Colonna and the violent demonstrations that followed, the government opened the possibility of discussions that could “go as far as autonomy”.
13/09/2023 20:51:15 – Ajaccio (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
