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Corsica Says "Non" to Greater Autonomy

July 7, 2003

The voters of Corsica rejected a French offer of limited autonomy by a narrow margin in referendum on Sunday, after the capture of the troubled island's most wanted separatist.

https://p.dw.com/p/3pec
Paris had hoped greater autonomy would quell the demands of Corsican nationalists for independence.Image: AP

Almost 51 percent of Corsicans voted "no" to French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin's proposals to scrap two administrative departments on the island, create an elected assembly in the city of Ajaccio and give wider powers over tax, tourism and environmental issues and force Corsica's political elite to adopt participation quotas for women.

Just over 49 percent of voters cast a "yes" vote for the plans. Paris said turnout was 60 percent. The margin of victory was a wafer-thin 2,190 votes.

Corsica was due to be the first French region to benefit under the government's plans for wider decentralization in France, which is hoped will reduce state spending and increase efficiency. The proposals had been billed as a chance for the island -- which lies 160 kilometers off the French Côte D'Azure -- to restore peace and prosperity after years of mafia-style separatist violence there.

French President Jacques Chirac in a statement regretted the result, but said the French government would continue to support the island and help combat any violence. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been at the forefront of the "yes" campaign, called the outcome a "personal defeat."

On the eve of the vote, Sarkozy had pointed to the neighboring Italian island of Sardinia, saying it set an example of what Corsica could enjoy. "Sardinia, just nine kilometers away, has enjoyed autonomy since 1948 and has no independence seekers," he said.

Colonna's capture

Yvan Colonna Terrorismus Porträtfoto Terrorist Terroranschlag
Undated file photo of Yvan Colonna, top suspect in the murder five years ago of Prefect Claude Erignac, France's highest official on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. Colonnna was arrested Friday July 4, 2003 in southern Corsica. The arrest comes just two days before a key referendum in Corsica on greater autonomy and as the trial of eight Corsican nationalists accused of complicity in Erignac's murder was wrapping up in Paris.(AP Photo/MediaSud NewsImage: AP

Commentators have put forward various theories for vote's failure, which came hot on the heels of Friday's capture of Corsica's most wanted separatist, Yvan Colonna (photo), who is suspected of murdering the island’s Paris-installed governor Claude Erignac in 1998.

“If Paris wanted to support the “no” camp, they couldn’t have come up with a better method,” Corsican nationalist Jean Guy Talamoni told the German news agency DPA, referring to Colonna’s arrest.

Other observers mooted many Corsicans did support the plans for greater autonomy, but were fearful of being allied with radical rival nationalist groups. And some believe Corsicans were simply put off the plans for change, fearing civil service job losses once the proposals were implemented.

Corsica -- Napoleon's birthplace and a tourist attraction -- has suffered years of bomb attacks and violence by rival separatist movements. The latest cycle of violence began in the mid-1970s when the murder of two policemen began a Guerilla campaign to gain independence from France. Most of the 270,000 who live on Corsica do not support the campaign, but fear openly saying so.