François Berlinghi, cultural activist and mayor of Pero-Casevecchie, has passed away

Man of culture, defender of the Corsican language, passionate about cinema and theater, François Berlinghi died this Sunday, November 24 at the age of 71. Mayor of Pero-Casevecchie, he had contributed, with Francis Marcantei, to the creation of the Tavagna Club.

He was a man of many qualities. François Berlinghi was first devoted to his village: Pero-Casevecchie, in Tavagna, where he had been mayor since 2006. The elected official fought daily to keep his town alive all year round. With Antoine Giancoli and Florent Alberti, the three of them created the associative bar a few years ago.Cyrnos Circle” in the center of the village.

“Pero encounters the same difficulties as other municipalities, but what is most lacking in our villages are places of life and meetings where we can make connections with the inhabitants, which is why we founded Circul Cyrnos“, he told us last year. In addition to his municipal mandate, François Berlinghi had chaired the community of municipalities of the Costa Verdefrom 2007 to 2014. Since then, he has been the vice-president in charge of school affairs.

A man as attached to his village as to culture. Because François Berlinghi also had a passion for cinema, theater and the Corsican language, always with a connection to his native land. With his friends, including Francis Marcantei, they had set up the famous Tavagna Club, a cultural association born in 1967 with the objective of maintaining social ties in the village.

Theater plays, concerts, sporting activities: more than 50 years of efforts to revitalize the microregion. The association is also at the origin of the Settembrinu di Tavagna festival which celebrated its thirty candles this summer.

We were strongly involved in a process of building a future, whether collective and above all united. He was a kind person, I don't know anyone who didn't love François.

Francis Marcantei, founding member of the Tavagna Club and mayor of Talasani

“With his disappearance, our associative experience has reached a confluence. These are also obligatory steps in the collective journeys, today we are at a crossroads in our path.” confides Francis Marcantei, founding member of the Tavagna Club and mayor of Talasani, with great emotion. “François was a mark of common reflection, which has accompanied us from the beginning. He had an immoderate love for the pieve of Tavagna, for our villages, for a certain way of practicing solidarity and social involvement, which explains why we were unionized and our membership in the SNES (national union of secondary education, editor’s note)“.

Comedian of the Teatrinu troupe

How to evoke the life of François Berlinghi without thinking of the macagne and theshow I Storti? For 3 years, with the Teatrinu troupe, led by Guy Cimino, he participated in several humorous shows, including parodies of the French television news 3 Runs Via Stella.

“It’s a page that is turning. He is someone who will be greatly missed in Corsican theater. He was one of the known and recognized actors“, reacts Guy Cimino, head of the Teatrinu troupe. “He loved to laugh, he loved life, he was always ready to go out and have a drink, that's what we will miss“.

A few years ago, François Berlinghi shared his memories with us with the troupe of the Teatrinu, which had already lost one of its members, Daniel Parigi. “What a wonderful time. Guy Cimino, Daniel Parigi, Dominique Gambini, they had an imagination… They invented these things…”.

With a bright face, he remembered a happy team with whom he had no pressure. “It had nothing to do with what you might feel before going on stage. It was like a game, really. We disguised ourselves, one time we were prehistoric men, the next time we were knights who went on a crusade… We had incredible freedom. We had no experience of television, we all came from theater. At the beginning we had few resources, we had to improvise, find solutions, and that's sometimes where the craziest ideas came from!

A busy life, which does not stop at culture. Retired, François Berlinghi was a professor of economics and management at the Giocante high school in Casabianca, in Bastia. Committed on a daily basis, with solid left-wing convictions, François Berlinghi was also an activist for SNES-FSU (National Union of Secondary and Secondary Education). Unitary Trade Union Federation).

This Monday, several of his colleagues paid tribute to him on social networks. “I remember his deep and gravelly voice, his Tavagna accent, when he stood up in a general meeting to set some people's records straight.“, “A union activist like few you come across in your life, and unfortunately like few left“, write these relatives.

Since the 2000s, we could also see François Berlinghi on the big screen. He notably gave the answer to Christian Clavier in the film “The Corsican investigation” by Alain Berbérian released in 2004.

Three years later, he also played the role of Fanfan in the film “Semper vivu! (who said we were dead?)” .

Despite the illness that had struck him for several months, François Berlinghi continued to live for culture. Last May, he took the stage at theAlb'Oru to act in the play “Don Quichote“, directed by Jean-Pierre Lanfranchi. “His death will leave a big void, François is someone who accompanied me through many things“, Jean-Pierre Lanfranchi told us. “I hope that from where he is, he will rejoice as many people as he rejoiced here“.