France deports 7 Corsican activists to Paris: "A strategy that aims to exclude us"

 

After the transfer to Paris of seven of its activists as part of a rogatory commission commissioned by theFrench prosecution, Corsica Libera denounces a "political police" and "attempts to destabilize". The movement also puts pressure on the executive. Instead of the pseudo ''historical process'', the French State apparatus signs the return of political police operations, worthy of the time of the dragonnades, with its share of atrocities and unworthy methods.

Petru Antone Tomasi sets the tone, in front of the gates of the Bastia courthouse. Around the spokesman of Corsica Libera, a hundred activists and sympathizers of the independence party came to unite and close ranks, this Wednesday evening, like the former president of the Assembly of Corsica, Jean-Guy Talamoni. Members of Core in Fronte are also present, as are representatives of the association supporting "political prisoners" Sulidarità and the Patriotti collective.

In the firing line: the arrest of seven activists on Monday and their transfer to Paris as part of a rogatory commission commissioned by the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office. Among these are leaders of the movement and figures such as the alleged former leader of the FLNC, Charles Pieri (our previous editions), whose party "demands the immediate release".

These operations follow the search of the party premises in Bastia and arrests carried out in Ajaccio the previous week. In the eyes of the movement, these "manoeuvres" are neither more nor less than the illustration of a "willingness to muzzle a political fight by those who claim to be the guarantors of democracy and human rights".

Party officials go even further. They do not hesitate to point to the statements of the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, and his "ambiguous" remarks on the island's political and criminal context. At the microphone of France Info on Tuesday, the government's "Monsieur Corse" stirred up trouble by referring to the "fight against organized crime", even though it is a procedure conducted by anti-terrorism. Was the minister referring to the series of arson attacks that targeted relatives of the territorial majority the day before? For Corsica Libera, in any case, things are clear: "These are shameful statements which, in the deleterious climate that our country is experiencing, are a matter of manipulation and an attempt to destabilize Corsican society, supports Petru Antone Tomasi. They open the door to all the amalgams and all the dirty tricks. The activists of Corsica Libera are political activists whose fight and project are at the antipodes of business and criminal logic. The Corsicans are not fooled. »

The independence party, excluded from the majority in the Assembly of Corsica in the territorial of 2021, also maintains that this police operation would be in line with a will of the State aimed at marginalizing it by exploiting the division of the nationalist movement. "After demanding and obtaining that the independence movement be removed from institutional responsibilities and carrying out a systematic campaign of denigration against us, Paris has entered a new phase of blind repression aimed at excluding Corsica Libera from the political space", insists its spokesperson.

At issue, according to the party: its clear opposition to the "parody of the process" led by the government, "whose 'historical vocation' consists in the dissolution of the Corsican people within a population totally assimilated to the whole French politics and culture".
"The state wants to criminalize our movement"

Corsica Libera does not just point to the "manoeuvres" of the state. The independence party also puts pressure on the territorial executive and its former autonomist allies deemed, in a thinly veiled way, too deferential towards the government. "Faced with this situation of impasse, the whole of the national movement must position itself clearly, supports Josepha Giacometti-Piredda, territorial adviser of Corsica Libera to the Assembly of Corsica. Where some seek to distinguish ''hawks'' and ''doves'', there is, in reality, only one logic in Paris, now clear and asserted. That of criminalizing a political movement, in an attempt to divert a fight for the recognition of the rights of the Corsican people. For our part, we will never accept it and we will face it, maintaining an organized and determined political balance of power. »