A court in the French island of Corsica has ruled that the Corsican language cannot be used in the exercise of public office, effectively outlawing debates in the tongue at the island's political assembly, and pronounced that local rules establishing “the existence of a Corsican people” were also a violation of France's constitution.
Victims on the French Mediterranean island include a 13-year-old girl who died after a tree fell in a campsite and a British woman who vanished while kayaking off the coast.
A French judge has suspended on medical grounds the life sentence handed to Corsican nationalist Yvan Colonna for the 1998 assasination of a senior state official and who remains in a coma since he was severely beaten by a fellow prisoner in a mainland jail earlier this month.
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin, visiting Corsica where rioting has followed the serious assault in a mainland jail of a nationalist figure by a fellow prisoner, has said that Emmanuel Macron, if re-elected in presidential elections next month, could offer autonomy to the Mediterranean island which has been under rule from Paris since the 18th century.
Six days of street protests on the French island of Corsica over the serious assault in a mainland prison of nationalist figure Yvan Colonna, serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of a prefect and who was left in a coma by a fellow prisoner jailed for jihadist activity, turned to rioting overnight Wednesday, when law courts and a bank were targeted.
Provence and the Riviera in south-east France, along with the Mediterranean island of Corsica, all highly popular summer destinations for tourists, have declared emergency measures to deal with a surge in hospital admissions of Covid-19 cases, with medical staff reporting that the patient age-groups are notably younger than previously seen.
The French Mediterranean island of Corsica, known as “the island of beauty” for its stunning scenery, coastlines and wildlife, is also known for its clans and underworld gangs, and a murder rate well above the average in mainland France. Hélène Constanty reports from the Corsican village of Cargèse, where a string of killings has raised fears of a spiralling blood feud, and where a local collective is standing up to organised crime.
A young French air force pilot who, in a cruel initiation prank by otherairmen, was hooded, trussed, and tied to a post used for target practice by fighter jets, has filed a formal complaint with the public prosecution services for “aggravated violence” and “deliberately endangering the life of others”. Mediapart reveals here photos and video of the disturbing events at an airbase in Corsica which, as Justine Brabant reports, further tarnish the image of the air force after prosecutors in February opened an investigation into allegations of “institutionalised” harassment at a major base in eastern France.
A helicopter carrier has been sent to the French Mediterranean island of Corsica to evacuate people seriously ill from with infection from the Covis-19 coronavirus, who will be taken to hospitals in the southern mainland cities of in Marseille and Toulon.
The Mediterranean island of Corsica and the south of mainland France have been swept by strong winds and rain causing severe flooding and power outages, closing down roads and an airport.
The French Mediterranean island of Corsica is the focus of a series of investigations into the suspected mass fraud of European Union agricultural subsidies. One of the alleged methods of the fraud is the fictitious declaration of swathes of scrubland as pasture land for cattle farmers. The sums involved are vast, and those suspected of the scam include some closely related to the island’s notorious and feared underworld gangs. Hélène Constanty reports.
