Corsicans are going to the polls over the status of the island. But voters are confused as opponents urge a yes vote, writes Lara Marlowe, in Paris
The prestige of President Jacques Chirac and his ambitious Interior Minister, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, could take a beating if Corsica votes no in a referendum on the island's status tomorrow.
The referendum would merge Corsica's three administrative units - the region and the northern and southern departments of the island - into one entity. Mr Chirac, in an interview with Corse Matin newspaper, claimed a yes vote was "the best way to confirm your attachment to France and to the Republic".
The spokesman of Corsica Nazione, Mr Jean-Guy Talamoni, also called for a yes vote, on the grounds that it would be the first step towards independence for the island of 260,000. "This reform will not resolve all of Corsica's problems," Mr Talamoni told Le Monde. "We accept this small advance . . . it's just a stage." With Mr Chirac and Corsican nationalists offering identical instructions but diametrically opposed explanations, Corsicans are understandably confused. The government seems to be preparing for a possible defeat. Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin, in an interview to appear in today's Figaro magazine said: "They can say yes, they can say no. It would be rejecting the hand held out to them."
Mr Raffarin got an inkling of the difficulties ahead in late June, when he and Mr Sarkozy travelled to Corsica together. In the northern city of Bastia, whose mayor, Mr Émile Zuccarelli, is leading the no campaign, the two men were prevented from holding a rally. Too few supporters of the yes camp showed up, and civil servants protesting against Mr Raffarin's pension reform stormed the tent where the meeting was to take place.
Mr Raffarin and Mr Sarkozy retreated to Bastia airport, where they made brief speeches standing on plastic chairs, amid the scent of tear gas. The government sacked the prefect of northern Corsica over the incident.
Fifty-two per cent of salaried employees in Corsica are civil servants, and they may express their anger with Paris over the pension reform by voting no.
The Communist Party and the left of the Socialist Party have encouraged voters to reject the proposal not on its merits, but to cause problems for Mr Raffarin.
More than anyone else, Mr Sarkozy is on the line in the Corsican referendum. He has made eight trips to the island to campaign for a yes vote, and he personally convinced Mr Chirac - who had no strong feelings about Corsica before - to commit himself to the plan. Humility is a characteristic unknown to Mr Sarkozy, who only yesterday offered advice to the prime minister and education minister in Le Monde. He has admitted that a no vote in Corsica would be "a personal failure," but as the election approached, Mr Sarkozy toned down his earlier prediction of a "catastrophe".
Mr Sarkozy's plan is the continuation of the Matignon Accords, concluded by the previous Socialist government in 2000. The accords foresaw a single assembly for the island, but a provision for the assembly to legislate fell by the wayside. Mr Talamoni complains that promotion of the Corsican language and a solution for "political prisoners" have not been addressed. Paris will, however, commit €2 billion to the development of Corsica over the next 15 years.
In the old departmental general councils, elected on a simple majority basis, the nationalists had no voice. Under the new system, proportional representation and an electoral bonus to parties with more than 10 per cent of the vote could make the nationalists a major force in the Corsican assembly.
Opponents of the referendum claim there is a secret deal between Mr Sarkozy and the separatists whereby they would stop almost daily attacks in exchange for more political power.
Unfortunately for the government, the referendum has coincided with the trial of eight Corsican nationalists charged with the murder of prefect Claude Erignac in Ajaccio in February 1998. "It was a cowardly act," one of the accused, Mr Pierre Alessandri, said, addressing the prefect's widow Dominique in court. "We wanted to strike the symbol, not the man." Mr Erignac was killed by three bullets fired at close range into his neck.
The man believed to have pulled the trigger, Mr Yvan Colonna, was arrested last night (in southern Corsica) after a four-year manhunt. Mr Talamoni has used the same threatening tone in regard to the referendum and the Erignac trial.
A no vote "would increase tensions within Corsican society and between Corsica and Paris," he said.