lifting of the strike which paralyzed ports and airports

The strike which has paralyzed the ports and airports of the Isle of Beauty since Thursday afternoon has been lifted, a delegate from the Corsican workers’ union (STC) indicated this Friday afternoon, information confirmed by the two prefectures of the island.

24 hour strike. The spontaneous blockade of Corsican ports and airports that began this Thursday was lifted this Friday, announced the unions and prefectures of the Isle of Beauty.

“The president (autonomist of the island’s executive council) Gilles Simeoni has reached an agreement with the minister, we are lifting all the blockages,” Laurent Filippi, of the STC, declared to the media at the end of a meeting between the prefects of Corsica and Haute-Corse and the inter-union STC-CGT-CFE-CGC.

“The government confirms that an agreement has been reached,” confirmed the office of Minister of Territorial Partnership and Decentralization Catherine Vautrin.

In total, four airport sites were blocked Thursday and Friday. These were the airports of , , Calvi and Figari. Added to this were six ports on the island, also blocked. Among them is that of Bastia.

“It’s a declaration of war.”

But what happened to make the situation worse? This Thursday morning, Alexandre Patrou, general secretary for Corsican affairs (Sgac) who represented the prefect of Corsica during the extraordinary general assembly of the Corsican Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), spoke on the project creation of two open mixed unions (SMO) port and airport by the end of the year.

These SMOs should, according to the statutes presented Thursday morning, grant concessions to the island CCI so that it can continue to manage the island’s ports and airports from January 1, 2025.

Remember that last April, the prefect of Corsica denounced numerous dysfunctions at Ajaccio airport, in particular repeated failures in the screening of baggage and passengers.

But for Alexandre Patrou this arrangement would present “a significant legal risk”, which aroused the ire of the autonomous president of the island’s executive council, Gilles Simeoni.

“It is a declaration of war and I tell you again, for me it is not negotiable, there will be no international groups which will manage the ports and airports of Corsica,” said Gilles Simeoni, by denouncing “the decision that the State has just announced today, on the sly, without warning us and by denying its commitment and its word”.

Disturbances still present

Although this agreement allowed the immediate lifting of the strike movement, which had not been seen for 19 years, the disruptions will nevertheless take time to resolve.

Before the end of the strike, five passenger ships were still waiting at sea, near the ports of Ajaccio and Bastia, unable to dock, with around 2,100 people on board in total, according to the Mediterranean maritime prefecture.

The prefectures have activated information numbers, for Haute-Corse (08 06 00 01 49) and Corse-du-Sud (04 95 11 12 92), which remain active to help affected travelers.

A gymnasium was made available by the city of Ajaccio to accommodate travelers without accommodation on Friday evening, said the prefecture of Corsica-du-Sud. The gymnasium, which welcomed 130 travelers to Bastia for the night from Thursday to Friday, also remains open.

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