A week following the assault in prison of independence activist Yvan Colonna, anger rose a notch on Wednesday evening in Corsica, with an intrusion and fire starting in the Ajaccio courthouse and several injured in clashes.
Since the nationalist activist, sentenced for the assassination of the prefect Claude Erignac in 1998, is in a coma following being violently attacked by a fellow prisoner imprisoned for terrorism, the demonstrations have multiplied on the island at the call of students , high school students, nationalist organizations or trade unions accusing the State of bearing a heavy responsibility.
On Wednesday night, several hundred people had gathered in Ajaccio, Calvi (Haute-Corse) or Bastia. But very quickly, clashes broke out between some protesters and law enforcement.
In Ajaccio, the scuffles continued until midnight and demonstrators broke into the courthouse, which was closed at this time.
Reams of paper or waste were burned in the hall and other fire starts blackened the facade, noted an AFP photographer. These fires were quickly extinguished by firefighters.
“There was a fire on the ground floor of the court, no spread on the floors but a lot of damage,” Jean-Jacques Peraldi, Corsica’s director of fire and rescue services, told AFP. -du-Sud.
There were at least two arrests, according to a police source.
Later, some protesters, equipped with a mini excavator, downgraded an agency of Crédit Agricole, before heading to Place Claude Erignac, a highly symbolic place, Yvan Colonna having been convicted of the murder of the prefect of Corsica .
There several people intervened to avoid any damage, a man climbing on the digger and shouting: “We are not scum, we are patriots, get out of here”, according to an AFP correspondent.
At least 14 people were injured, including a TF1 journalist in the leg, according to the prefecture.
In Calvi (Haute-Corse), another institutional location was targeted. After a calm start to the demonstration, “regarding forty demonstrators, hooded, threw molotov cocktails at the sub-prefecture and broke windows with stones”, reported the prefecture in a press release.
In this context of escalation, the authorities called for “appeasement and dialogue in order to avoid any new victims”.
– demonstration on Sunday –
In Bastia, 23 CRS and three civilians were injured, including a photographer from the daily Corse-Matin, according to a report from the prefecture of Haute-Corse published at the end of the demonstration at around 9.30 pm.
“The demonstrators fired molotov cocktails, agricultural bombs, iron balls, sling shots” and “the CRS maintained the distance with the demonstrators by using tear gas”, detailed the prefecture in a press release.
“Only one LBD shot was fired and hit an approaching protester in the lower parts with a molotov cocktail,” she added.
Yvan Colonna was imprisoned at the central house in Arles (Bouches-du-Rhône). He had long sought reconciliation in Corsica, which was systematically denied due to his status as a “particularly well-known detainee”.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex had lifted this status but this decision, far from appeasing, was deemed much too late in Corsica, Yvan Colonna being between life and death in a Marseille hospital since his attack on March 2 .
As for the other two Erignac Commando detainees who are also calling for their rapprochement on the island, Alain Ferrandi and Pierre Alessandri, “the Prime Minister will have to decide soon given the circumstances,” the government spokesman said. Gabriel Attal.
Some nationalist movements call for the continuation of the mobilization. They took action on Wednesday to hold a unitary demonstration on Sunday followingnoon in Bastia, despite the reluctance of the Colonna family, who said they feared “a new tragedy” in the context.
On Sunday, thousands of people had already demonstrated in Corte (Haute-Corse) chanting in Corsican “Statu francesu assassinu!”, “Etat français assassin”.
jc-san-mc-cor / iw / ao
