Known for its pristine beaches and wild interior, the Mediterranean island of Corsica attracts three million visitors a year and largely stays out of international headlines. But beneath its bucolic façade lies a complicated history, one that threatens to upset the island’s picture-postcard image. Le problème corse centres on nationalist demands by political parties such as Femu a Corsia for more autonomy – and in the case of Corsica Libera, total separation. 

Though local powers were extended in 2018, Corsica’s leaders want autonomous powers written into the constitution. The conundrum for the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and its prime minister, François Bayrou, is how to resolve the dispute without it causing further problems when the issue is meant to go before a vote in the National Assembly later this year.

Corsica was ruled by the Kingdom of Genoa for almost 500 years until it was annexed by France in 1769. Since then, its culture and language, more similar to Italian than French, have meant that it has felt removed from l’Hexagone. From the 1970s to the 1990s, when separatist militant group the National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) laid down its arms, the island’s independence movement was riven with violence. While things are calmer now, the legacy of those years lives on. The island has the highest rate of gun ownership in France, with almost 350 weapons per 1,000 inhabitants, more than double the national average. The last separatist clashes came in March 2022, when Corsican nationalist leader Yvan Colonna was beaten to death by a fellow inmate in a mainland prison. Protests spread from Ajaccio and Bastia to other cities; 77 police officers were injured.

That unrest, which came less than a year after the flnc threatened to return to armed struggle in their pursuit of Corsican sovereignty, convinced Macron to act. The subsequent negotiations, dubbed the Beauvau Process, led to a series of meetings between Corsican and national officials. These yielded a breakthrough in March 2024 – despite sticking points over the status of the Corsican language, the central government recognised the idea of autonomy for Corsica “within the heart of the republic”, a concept later approved by the Corsican Assembly.

The vote on autonomy by the National Assembly is expected in the autumn and many European leaders with separatist problems of their own will be watching. Some in France are fearful that giving Corsica further powers could prompt other regions, such as Brittany, to try to follow suit. But if Paris denies the wishes of Corsica’s leaders, things could turn ugly on the island once more.