A wave of protests erupted over the weekend on the French island of Corsica following the decision of a court in Corsica to ban the use of the Corsican language in the island’s local parliament and in public institutions.
Citing France’s constitution in its decision on Thursday, the court in the city of Bastia has prompted outrage by ruling that French was the only language allowed in the exercise of public office in Corsica.
Court’s verdict effectively ruled out as unconstitutional and therefore banned the Corsican assembly’s custom of allowing the Corsican language for debates.
Spoken by about 150,000 native speakers, Corsican, which is similar to the standard Italian language, is considered to be in danger of becoming extinct by the UN’s cultural organization UNESCO.
Bastia’s court also said in another segment of its verdict – which goes beyond the language question – that local rules effectively establishing “the existence of a Corsican people” were also a violation of the French constitution.
The court was deciding upon the lawsuit brought by the central government’s highest representative on the island, the Prefect of Corsica, at a time when the administration of French president Emmanuel Macron is negotiating with local politicians about granting Corsica greater autonomy.
Despite his statement that changing the status of Corsica is “no taboo”, Macron insists that Corsica should remain part of France.
Court’s verdict prompted a strong rebuke from the pro-autonomy politicians who noted in a joint statement that it is unthinkable for them to accept this state of affairs and announced an appeal against the verdict, stressing that for the Corsican language to survive and develop, it needed to be given official status alongside French.
Corsican assembly president, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, and the island’s executive council president, Gilles Simeoni, emphasized that this verdict amounts to stripping Corsican parliament members of the right to speak their language during debates.
The pro-independence party Core in Fronte, meanwhile, tweeted in Corsican that it considers the verdict “shameful”.
