Gérald Darmanin wants to go faster on the Corsican file. The Minister of the Interior, who received Wednesday in Paris the Corsican elected officials as part of the discussions on the institutional future of the island, said he expected a "deliberation" of the Assembly of Corsica on the question of autonomy, carried by the nationalist majority.

"The Corsican Assembly must now deliberate to make proposals (...) so that we can discuss these proposals by the end of June, "said the tenant of Place Beauvau after a day of exchanges devoted to housing and land issues.

An appointment at the end of June between Darmanin and Gilles Simeoni

The minister also gave an appointment at the end of June to the autonomist president of the executive council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, "to be able, around July 14, to make [s] on the first return to the President of the Republic on the legislative and institutional evolutions" of the island. During the discussions, Gérald Darmanin also encouraged Corsican elected officials to make proposals "as unanimous as possible" to agree the National Assembly and the Senate, a 3/5th majority of which must be gathered as part of Emmanuel Macron's constitutional reform project.

On the issue of housing, the minister said he was ready to discuss, either in an ad hoc law or in the next budget, provisions against real estate speculation that could be voted without amending the Constitution, including the extension of the right of pre-emption or the increase of taxes on vacant housing and second homes.

"Residence status", a red line for the State

On the "status of resident", dear to the nationalists but which constitutes a red line for the State, Gérald Darmanin argued that it was "contrary to European law". On the other hand, a "status of residence", which would allow people present in Corsica for "a number of years" to access housing more easily is "a constitutional amendment that we could study", he announced.

This round of discussions was initiated by the State in July 2022 after the murder in prison of Yvan Colonna, sentenced to life for the assassination of Prefect Claude Erignac in 1998. It was supposed to last one year with one meeting in Paris every six weeks, but only three thematic meetings have been held since.

From September to January, the question of the regime of semi-liberty denied to Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, the last two members of the Erignac commando still in prison, slowed down the discussions. Then, in March, the vote by several Corsican MPs from the Liot group (Freedoms, Independents, Overseas and Territories) of the motion of censure that almost brought down the government after the use of 49.3 on the pension reform, had also revived tensions with the government.

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