A revival of nationalism on the island of beauty? The national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat) announced to AFP on Wednesday that it had taken up the investigation into the fire and explosion which damaged a house belonging to Corsican residents in Olmeto (South Corsica) in night from Saturday to Sunday.
The investigation was opened on Sunday for “participation in a correctional terrorist criminal association” and “degrading the property of others by a means dangerous for people in connection with a terrorist enterprise”, specified the Pnat. “The investigations are ongoing and covered by the secrecy of the investigation,” he stressed.
Several tags “FLNC” or “lingua corsa, lingua viva” (Corsican language, living language) were noted on the walls of the house, said Sunday the public prosecutor of Ajaccio Nicolas Septe, specifying that no one had been injured.
The first findings allowed the deminers to find a gas cylinder near the house, “which could explain the phenomenon of explosion of the house by saturation of the air in the house during the fire”, had -he added.
The owners of the house are “unknown to the police. It would be a Corsican couple who have always lived there,” according to Nicolas Septe. Claiming to be “nauseated”, the mother of the owner of the blown up house, Antoinette Lucchinacci, denounced on Facebook “this pathetic and cowardly act” against a family where the children are “in bilingual classes and speak Corsican”, calling on “all nationalist movements to have the courage and honesty to formalize their positions” on these facts.
The two autonomist parties condemned these “unjustifiable” facts, the separatists of Core in Fronte gave their support to the family as did the pro-armed struggle independence party Nazione which sees in these facts a possible “gross manipulation”.
This event comes at a time when several demonstrations and blocking movements punctuated by incidents with the police have recently taken place in Corsica. Several nationalist student unions are protesting against the decision to ban Corsican from the island’s assembly under the slogan “lingua corsa, lingua viva”.
In mid-November, the Marseille administrative court of appeal banned the use of Corsican in debates in the Corsican assembly because it was contrary to the Constitution, to the great dismay of Corsican autonomist elected officials who intend to appeal to the Council of ‘State.
