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The National Liberation Front of Corsica is a name used by various guerrilla and paramilitary organizations that advocate an independent or autonomous state on the island of Corsica, separated from France. The original FLNC was founded on 5 May 1976 from a merger between two smaller armed groups: the Corsican Peasant Front for Liberation, and Ghjustizia Paolina. This organization persisted until 1990, when a 1988 ceasefire agreement caused the unstable organization to split into two organizations based around separate ideas. In 1999, various factions merged to form the FLNC-Union of Combatants, a larger organization and one of the FLNCs which still exist today. In the present day, there are four organizations still active with the FLNC name: The FLNC-UC, The FLNC-22 October, the FLNC-1976, and the FLNC-21 May. The FLNC-UC and FLNC-22U, the two largest and most active groups, often sign press releases and communiqués together, and have been allied since at least 2022. The political party Nazione was founded in 2024 from the political party Corsica Libera, the modern political wing of the FLNC-UC. is led by Petr'Antu Tomasi, Ghjuvan-Guidu Talamoni and Josepha Giacometti-Piredda, with the participation of the former FLNC political prisoner Carlu Santoni. The FLNCs are all mostly local to Corsica but also commit attacks on the French mainland.
Corsica Nazione was an electoral group in the Corsican Assembly composed of Corsican nationalist parties. It was led by Jean-Guy Talamoni, who would later become president of the Corsican Assembly in 2015 under the Corsica Libera political party. The group supported the nationalist paramilitaries of the Corsican conflict, and many of the parties in the coalition were political wings of various armed factions.
Armata Corsa was an underground separatist terrorist organization in Corsica, founded in 1999 and disbanded around 2001.
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of the French mainland, west of the Italian Peninsula and immediately north of the Italian island of Sardinia, the nearest land mass. A single chain of mountains makes up two-thirds of the island. As of January 2024, it had a population of 355,528.
Corsican nationalism is the concept of a cohesive nation of Corsica and a national identity of its people. The Corsican autonomy movement stems from Corsican nationalism and advocates for further autonomy for the island, if not outright independence from France.
The Corsican conflict is an armed and political conflict on the island of Corsica which began in 1976 between the government of France and Corsican nationalist militant groups, mainly the National Liberation Front of Corsica and factions of the group. Beginning in the 1970s, the Corsican conflict peaked in the 1980s before Corsican nationalist groups and the French government reached a truce with one of the two main splinters of the FLNC, the FLNC-Union of Combattants in June 2014. In 2016, the other main splinter, the FLNC-22nd of October also declared a truce. It is currently ongoing following the 2022 Corsica unrest and the return to arms of the FLNC-UC and FLNC-22U.
The 2015 Corsican protests were a series of marches by several hundred Corsican nationalists that began on 25 December, in Ajaccio, capital of Corsica. During the initial demonstrations, a Muslim prayer hall was burned down and Qur'ans were set alight. Further protests were organised after the initial march despite a government ban on protests until 4 January 2016. The protesters claimed to be acting in revenge for an incident that occurred the day prior when firefighters and police were assaulted in the neighbourhood of Les Jardins de l'Empereur; however, outside observers labeled the ensuing riots as anti-Arab and anti-Muslim. The Corsican nationalist politicians have claimed their view does not legitimise xenophobia, blaming the protest on French nationalism instead. Scholarly opinions on this claim are divided.
Pè a Corsica was a Corsican nationalist political alliance in France, which was calling for more autonomy for Corsica. More specifically, it was a coalition of the two Corsican nationalist parties active on the island; that is, the moderately autonomist Femu a Corsica and the strongly committed separatist Corsica Libera. The party was led by the autonomist Gilles Simeoni. The alliance was renewed for the 2017 territorial election. However, the alliance was dissolved for the 2021 territorial election.
Jean-Guy Talamoni is a Corsican politician and Corsican nationalist, who was President of the Corsican Assembly from 17 December 2015 to 1 July 2021. He previously served as leader of the Corsica Nazione electoral group in the Corsican assembly.
In March 2022, the island of Corsica, France, saw protests in response to a prison attack on nationalist leader Yvan Colonna. There were rallies in the main cities of Ajaccio, Calvi and Bastia that descended into violent clashes between police and protestors. Protestors threw stones and flares at gendarmes.
Corsican autonomy is the idea and movement supporting the status of an autonomous region for the island of Corsica within the French Republic. Most supporters of greater autonomy are Corsican nationalists. The ruling Femu a Corsica party supports an autonomous status for Corsica.
The Aleria standoff was a confrontation between members of the French Gendarmerie and Corsican nationalist militants who entrenched themselves in a wine cellar at Aleria, Corsica, on 21 and 22 August 1975. The armed activists belonged to the radical nationalist party Action Régionaliste Corse (ARC). The occupation resulted in a strong reaction of the French government and is regarded as the precursor of the Corsican conflict.
Alain Orsoni is a Corsican politician and former FLNC militant and former president of AC Ajaccio. Founder of the FLNC-Canal Habituel and its political wing, the Movement for Self-Determination, Orsoni led the organization until its dissolution in 1997.
The FLNC-Canal Historique was an armed paramilitary and guerrilla organization created in 1990 from a split within the command structure of the original FLNC. The organization was created to be a radically militant force, rejecting the idea of ceasefire with the French government. During Corsica's “Lead Years”, a violent period of intense guerrilla warfare in the 1990s, the FLNC-CS was the most violent and active organization, engaging in intense conflict with both the French government and armed forces, but also with other nationalist organizations, engaging in a war with Alain Orsoni’s FLNC-Canal Habituel. In 1999, The FLNC-CS became one of the founding members of the FLNC-Union of Combattants, a guerrilla organization which remains active today following the end of a nine-year long ceasefire.
François Durand Séraphin Santoni was a Corsican politician and guerrilla leader serving as the co-leader of the National Liberation Front of Corsica-Canal Historique and one of the two secretary-generals of its political wing, A Cuncolta Naziunalista from 1990 to 1998, when he left both organizations to found his own political party, Presenza Naziunale, and its armed wing, Armata Corsa.
On 17 August 2001, Corsican guerrilla leader and head of the extremist Armata Corsa organisation François Santoni was shot 13 times while attending the marriage of a family friend. The groom, Jean-René Tomasi, was also injured in the attack. The 6 attackers were mostly members of the Brise de Mer mafia, the largest mafia group in Corsica at the time, with the exception of Ange-Marie Orsoni. The attack was done after Santoni began accusing members of the National Liberation Front of Corsica-Canal Historique, an organisation he resigned from co-leading three years before, of conspiring with the mafia. Despite the factors leading up to the incident, the incident has largely been ruled as personal score-settling without a political motivation. The incident was a major event in modern Corsican history, ending the 12-year long period of infighting known as the Years of Lead.
The Tralonca peace campaign was a 10-month period of negotiations and an attempted settlement between the government of France and the National Liberation Front of Corsica-Canal Historique, the largest Corsican paramilitary group at the time. The agreements were meant to bring stability to a then war-ridden Corsica in hopes of an eventual peace with all of the factions present during the period. This was to be achieved through greater autonomy within Corsica, economic growth through the establishment of an economic free zone, and infrastructure developments. The project was spearheaded by French prime minister Alain Juppé and FLNC-CS co-leader François Santoni.
On 16 April 1981, the Ajaccio Napoleon Bonaparte Airport was targeted with two large time bombs placed in the airport terminal in an attempt to assassinate French president Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, who had landed in Corsica for a presidential visit only two minutes before the bombs detonated. Giscard was only 500 yards away at the time of the explosion.
The National Liberation Front of Corsica, informally known as “the front” was a Corsican nationalist guerrilla and paramilitary organization formed on 5 May 1976. The group formed to violently overthrow French rule in Corsica to establish an independent Corsican state. It was the first group to form during the Corsican conflict, and the first to use the name “National Liberation Front of Corsica”. The group was declared an unlawful organization in 1983 and ordered to dissolve, but continued to operate regardless of the ruling.
References
- 1 2 "16 injured in Riviera bombing | World news". The Guardian. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- 1 2 "BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Corsica militants 'admit' blasts". news.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ↑ "La piste corse " confirmée " après deux explosions à Nice - 21/07/2003". ladepeche.fr. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ↑ "Partager sur Facebook". nouvelobs.com. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ↑ "KUNA : Bomb explodes at French military facility in Nice - Military - 10/10/2003". kuna.net.kw. Retrieved 2018-07-20.
- ↑ "Attentat de Nice: la piste corse". Libération. Retrieved 2018-07-20.