Berliner Tageblatt - French court cracks down on Corsican language use in local assembly

The use of any language other than French in the country's elected assemblies is proscribed by the constitution, the Marseille administrative court of appeal said in its ruling.

"The language of the Republic is French", the court said, quoting from France's 1958 constitution, and must be used by any person exercising public service.

There are several dozen regional languages still being spoken in France, with Corsican one of the main non-French idioms still in use along with Alsatian, Basque and Breton.

Since the French Revolution, governments in highly-centralised France have sought to curb regional and local languages because they have been seen as accompanying a desire for more political autonomy from Parisian rule.

As recently as last week, President Emmanual Macron stated that "regional languages have been an instrument for dividing the nation".

The French language, by contrast, had been the "crucible for the country's unity", he said.

The appeals case had been brought by the island's executive body (CDC) after the administrative court on the island last year annulled all assembly deliberations conducted in Corsican, and rejected an executive decision by the CDC to allow the local language to be used in debates.

The CDC said it will now take the matter before the State Council, France's highest court dealing with matters involving state entities.

Corsican Executive Council president Gilles Simeoni and assembly head Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis said the court's decision was "contrary to European and international law which protects basic linguistic rights".

They hoped to mobilise the EU's jurisdiction in their favour, they said, and demanded a revision of the French constitution to give Corsican "an official status".

The picturesque island of Corsica is an integral part of the French republic, but enjoys more autonomy, notably in cultural and education matters, than other French regions.

Relations between the island's autonomy movement and the central government in Paris have been fraught and sometimes violent.

In 1998 the central government's highest representative in Corsica, prefect Claude Erignac, was shot dead in the street with three bullets in the head by Corsican nationalist extremists.

The man convicted for the assassination, Yvan Colonna, was himself savagely attacked in a prison gym in 2022 and died later from his injuries.

Corsica, known for its stunning and often secluded beaches, has around 350,000 permanent residents and welcomes an estimated three million visitors each year.

F.Müller--BTB