Twenty-five years later, government proposes “to write new page in history of Corsica”

Gérald Darmanin went to Corsica to call to “trace together” an “institutional, economic, cultural road”. At the same time, the president, Emmanuel Macron, received in Paris the Erignac family.

mo12345lemonde with AFP

A quarter of a century after the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac, “it is time to write a new page in the history of Corsica” and the government set on Monday to the Corsicans by the voice of His Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin.

The evening of February 6, 1998, Claude Erignac died under the bullets of a killer who had pulled him in the back, in a street in Ajaccio, while he was going on foot to the theater.

Monday, the commemorations to mark the 25 anniversary of this assassination held in Ajaccio, in the presence of Gérald Darmanin, at the place of crime that has become a place of memory.

“It is up to us to write a new page. Twenty-five years after the death of Claude Erignac, it’s time to inaugurate the start of the suite together. It’s time to write a new page of the ‘ History of Corsica, “said the Minister of the Interior. 2>” Let’s work together ”

The Mediterranean island is experiencing complicated relationships with French governments and for decades for decades nationalist movements demanding more autonomy and for certain independence, as well as clandestine groups. The nationalists have been at the head of the island’s instances since 2015.

The government “reaches out to the countless Corsicans of goodwill, in love with peace and fraternity” to “trace together” an “institutional, economic, cultural road” and “for the cause of peace”, -he adds. “Let’s work together,” launched the minister, because “the dead look at us”.

Claude Erignac was the first prefect killed in France since the Second World War and his assassination had caused a shock wave. The following days, tens of thousands of islanders had expressed their dread during the biggest demonstrations ever organized in Ajaccio and Bastia.

Questioned by the France-Presse agency just after this speech, the autonomist president of the Corsican Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, who was also the lawyer of Yvan Colonna, one of the men condemned for his participation in this Assassination, did not wish to react immediately.

On Place Erignac, where an olive tree is now standing and the inscription “1 man, 1 place”, deputies, president of the Corsican assembly, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, or the current prefect of Corsica were present for this tribute to the man “luminous, right and honest” that was Claude Erignac, according to the Minister of the Interior.

Emmanuel Macron received the Erignac family

At the same time in Paris, the president, Emmanuel Macron, received the Erignac family. For the 20 ^e anniversary, the Head of State had made his first trip to the island since his election, accompanied by M ^{Me Erignac and his two children whose It was the first return to Corsica since the facts. “I hope that the Republic will never weaken in Corsica,” said Dominique Erignac, paying tribute to her husband on this “cursed place”.}