Corsica: separatists gathered near Gabriel Attal’s villa, despite the prefecture’s ban

Several dozen activists from the Corsican independence party Core in Front gathered on Sunday on the road leading to the villa of Prime Minister Gabriel Attal in Coti Chiavari (Southern Corsica), at the height of a gendarme checkpoint.

Despite a prefectural ban on the demonstration, activists from Core in Fronte, the minority party in the Corsican Assembly, quietly displayed Corsican flags for about an hour, with the head of a black Moor in the background. as well as banners reading “Basta repression” and “gendarme forums, SDAT (anti-terrorist unit)” (in Corsican on the outside).

Six protesters also tried to board a semi-rigid boat near the villa but were blocked by authorities at sea. “We are not here to invade homes,” Paul-Felix Benedetti, head of Core in Fronte, emphasized in his speech, “we are here to convey a clear political message.”

“We are negotiating a solution to end the conflict, and repressive logic is being used in an insidious and harmful way. This does not bode well for peaceful debate. Today, an attack on activists is a direct attack,” said Paul-Felix Benedetti. “Statesmen, if they love Corsica, let them begin to respect the Corsicans,” he added.

Call for the “immediate release” of Stéphane Ory

To condemn the arrest of independence fighter Stéphane Ory, who was indicted at the end of March and jailed as a result of a judicial investigation launched by the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, Core in Fronte called on Wednesday for this meeting to be held on Sunday at 2 am. :30 pm” in front of Gabriel Attal’s house. Demonstrators demanded the “immediate release” of Stéphane Ory.

On Friday the prefecture banned the “unannounced” demonstration, and on Sunday gendarmes blocked the road leading to Gabriel Attal’s villa.

Authorities said they feared that “radical individuals” were “likely to take advantage of this rally call currently circulating on social media to commit public order violations.”

On February 3, independence activists from the same party entered a house belonging to Justice Minister Eric Dupont-Moretti in the village of Centuri in Cap Corse (Haute-Corse). An investigation has been launched into home invasion and aggravated criminal damage. Activists declared a “symbolic and political operation” targeting the minister’s “second home” in order to “condemn the repressive mechanisms in Corsica.”