AJACCIO – Following weeks of separatist protests, the French government has indicated that it is willing to discuss autonomy for the first time, prompted by the need to address an increasingly violent situation that has caused damage to infrastructure and dozens of injuries, political sources said. The future of the island has become a major topic in the French presidential elections.

 French Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin travelled to the island to "open a cycle of discussions" with local representatives. In an interview with the newspaper Corse Matin, that he was "ready to go as far as autonomy" if "first we discuss what autonomy means" and that for this reason he will engage in an "unprecedented discussion around the institutional question.”

 He added he will be "logically committed” to the issue “during the second term of the President of the Republic,” meaning if Emmanuel Macron is re-elected.

 The Interior Minister said he wants to come to an agreement on the institutional, economic, social and cultural future of the island, with particular input from the President of the Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, a former independence activist and elected representative of the island who has been pushing for autonomous status.

 Simeoni said Darmanin's words were "important" but "not yet a victory" either for him "or for the Corsican people.”

 In the meantime, the situation on the island has become increasingly tense.

 On March 13 alone, 102 people were injured in clashes, including 77 members of the police force. "There are serious injuries" according to Bastia's prosecutor, Arnaud Viornery. According to published figures, 650 Molotov cocktails were thrown at the police, while a stash of another 400 Molotov cocktails was seized just before the demonstration, in a parking lot.

 On the night of March 10, clashes broke out after days of protests over the aggressive treatment of activist Yvan Colonna in prison. The hundreds of demonstrators, who took to the streets shouting "French Statu Assassinu", accused Paris of being responsible for the attempted murder of the militant. Fires were started and a group broke into the courthouse. Another group of protesters broke through a Crédit Agricole cash machine using a small excavator.

 Colonna, currently hospitalised in very serious condition, is serving a life sentence for the 1998 murder of the prefect Claude Erignac in Ajaccio. He was allegedly attacked by radical Islamist Franck Elong Abe, 35, who attempted to strangle the prominent separatist for saying something he considered blasphemous.

 Authorities are concerned that the demonstrations could get worse if 61-year-old Colonna were to die in hospital.

 Minister Damanin said “when you have hundreds of high school students aged 16 or 17 who go more or less to attack policemen with an axe, the first duty of the Minister of the Interior is to avoid any deaths,” whether it be the teenagers or mothers and fathers of families who are policemen. "And it is for this reason," he said, "I want to speak to the Corsicans and remind them of the republican order which is also close at hand."

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