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French dominos: Corsica deal could be contagious


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By John Metzler
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM

August 16, 2000

Paris -- France has long been characterized by centralized political rule. Whether it was the King Louis XIV saying "L’Etat c'est Moi," (I am the State) in the monarchy to the modern post- De Gaulle Fifth Republic, France has presented a classic model of a unitary state.

Yet a recent political deal by the Socialist government in Paris may have opened a dangerous political Pandora's box of regionalisms and smoldering separatism in other parts of France as cultural, linguistic and legislative concessions for Corsica could very well inspire other restive though not yet radicalized regions.

Now with a compact for Corsica, the Mediterranean isle long plagued by separatism, political violence, and vendetta clan reprisals, Prime Minister Lionel Jospin’s government treads on the slippery slope of how do you square the hexagon and still remain France? Where does very legitimate regionalism become fractious separatism? And how far should socio/political devolution in a democratic state such as France go before re-igniting the still glowing embers of ethnic separatism?

To be sure, Corsicans are very different from Normans, but does that alone qualify for creeping sovereignty? Le Figaro added editorialy, "With terror as an expression tolerated by the powers governing an "oppressed culture", the government has in effect let it be known that Corsican identity has a legitimate need for violence to validate their cause." An absurdity!

Other ethnic fault line rest in the Breton and Basque regions of France in the west and Southwest. Clearly the Bretons and the Basques are not the Gauls of France any more than the Irish and Welsh are Anglo-Saxons. While devolution in a democracy can lift the lid on a steaming pot, it can also produce a bouillabaisse of unintended consequences.

Ethno policy gains steam while at the same time the political class speaks of one Europe. The leftist Liberation stated "Corsica, the Boomerang effect." A nationalist conclave in Corsica uniting "peoples in struggle" from Basques, Bretons, Catalans among others pushed for further political devolution, the release of "political prisoners," and of course the end of "French colonial rule." Days after the meeting, two prominent Corsican nationalists were murdered on the island .

Though the Corsicans have often resorted to bombs and bullets--200 bombs and 222 political murders in 1999--they have grabbed the attention and concessions from the State. According to an informed observer, "The Celtic Bretons stay with colorful ethnic festivals but this is unlikely to produce any tangible political concessions from Paris."

The Breton case is not that of a "boutique culture" but rather of a genuinely different people--yet realistically the Celtic Breton language is spoken by perhaps only 250,000 people, less spoken than Gaelic in Ireland. Save for some isolated groups Bretons are quite French at least since its annexation by France in 1532.

Yet the swirl of the Breton bagpipes and bombardes at the major Celtic Festival in Lorient, peacefully evokes politics of a vague anti-globalization and quest for a separate space in Europe. In a sense, it's Euro policy of the Brussels bureaucrats versus the village, whose virile nationalism remains an ironic hallmark in the new century. The skepticism towards the centralized State is good but where will it logically lead?

Look at modern Europe and we see regionalism as a growing, virile and sometimes sanguinary force in Spain, Italy, and Britain. Sadly on the fringes of this debate we see the initials of the terrorist IRA or the Basque ETA scralled defiantly.

We hear about one Europe and the common European this and that. The smug Euro-class policy rhetoric about European foreign policy lacks the power beyond the tables of the Cafe or the conference hall.

If there is a common European Foreign policy, for example, I wonder when the enlightened political class plans to surrender the British and French seats on the U.N. Security Council for two Euro seats? Or a common European sports policy will there be a Team Europe at the Sydney Olympics rather than the athletes of the European Union nations who will proudly compete for medals under their national flags. Or if the World Football (Soccer) Cup in Korea in 2002 will field Team Europe rather than the dynamos which will dominate the field from France, Italy, and Germany?

Georges Suffert writing in Le Figaro speaking of the Jospin government's dubious Corsican deal stated sarcastically, “The wager of Lionel Jospin is half lost in eight days... he has nothing to say. Actually in France nobody has anything to say, the Politicians are absent. We will meet you again in September, that is to say in the harvest time."

John J. Metzler is a U.N. correspondent covering diplomatic and defense issues. He writes weekly for World Tribune.com.

August 16, 2000


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