Status of Corsica: why does the government want to revise the Constitution?

Promise kept. The government ratified this Wednesday, July 30, at the Council of Ministers the agreement reached in March 2024 with Corsican elected officials on the island's autonomy. This constitutional revision project must now begin its parliamentary process. A review of a text that the president of the Corsican Executive Council, Gilles Simeoni, considers "historic" if adopted.

The French state had never planned to go so far in granting autonomy to the island. This constitutional bill would include the word "Corsica" in the part of the fundamental law devoted to local authorities. In a new article, 72-5, it would thus be stated that "Corsica is endowed with a status of autonomy within the Republic, which takes into account its own interests, linked to its Mediterranean insularity and its historical, linguistic, and cultural community, which has developed a unique link to its land."

"This is a fairly unprecedented step of differentiation ," insisted the Minister of Regional Planning and Decentralization, François Rebsamen, before journalists after the Council of Ministers. " The particularities of Corsica, once recognized in the Constitution, could therefore be treated in a differentiated manner."

This constitutional change would therefore allow Corsica to benefit from laws different from those that apply on the continent. "The insularity, the landlocked nature of certain parts of the island,