I’ve just returned from Corsica. Beautiful, superficially Frenchified and with a population of under 400,000. Its nationalism is far more direct than its Catalan counterpart: the graffiti on the walls against those they consider to be the occupiers would be unthinkable here, I’m glad to say.
The nationalists, pro-independence parties standing on the same ticket, have just won an absolute majority in the two rounds of elections for the new Unique Corsican Collectivity. They opened parliament and formed a government on Tuesday, both headed by the nationalists. The President of the Assembly, who openly supports independence, and the President presented a program that does not fit within the current French Constitution. The same week, Thursday, they were both received in Paris by the French government to begin talks and negotiations. During the first meeting, the door was left open to constitutional reforms that recognize the Corsicans’ aspirations. The French government declared that the Constitution must be able to adapt to the political needs of every territory.
I say this because sometimes it is claimed that the Spanish government’s attitude in relation to Catalan demands is exactly the same as any Western democratic government. Well no, it’s not. Neither in Canada nor in Great Britain or in highly centralised France.
