Source: French to English Tester Published on: 2026-05-04
Source: The Conversation – in French– By Jean-Paul Pellegrinetti, Historian, IAE Nice – Université Côte d’Azur
Fifty years ago, on May 5, 1976, the National Liberation Front of Corsica, FLNC, was born. How can one explain the outbreak of political violence that struck the island until the 2000s?
At the end of the 19th centuryeIn the century, Corsica’s agricultural economy collapses and the island does not take the turn of the industrial revolution. For many, thedeparture for the colonies becomes an escape from misery. During the interwar period,230,000 Corsicansor their children are established or serving overseas. During the 1960s, Corsica remains thegreatly forgotten of the Trente Glorieuses. This situation is the origin of the protest carried by new generations who denounce the persistence of aclannismwhich has sclerosed political life. To this will be added the repercussions of Algerian independence andthe collapse of a colonial empirewhich allowed access to civil service jobs.
Disappointed by the lack of political prospects, a portion of the militant youth gradually adopts armed struggle as a mode of action.
The end of the Algerian War
Faced with the economic underdevelopment prevailing on the island, aregional action planproposes, in 1957, a strategy for economic recovery adapted to the imperatives of European construction. This plan is based on two mixed-economy companies, theCorsica Development Company (Somivac)and theCorsican Tourist Equipment Company (Setco).
In 1962, with the independence of Algeria, 17,500 non-Corsican repatriates settled on the island and benefited from the arrangements of these societies while the Corsicans were kept aside. As the historian explainsDidier Rey, frustrations therefore arise with the arrival of repatriates from Algeria, bearers of a certain form of modernity. The Corsicans feel sacrificed, dispossessed of development, and even uprooted on their own soil.
In 1965, the first bomb attacks – unclaimed – then targeted the “Pieds-noirs”, Somivac, or tourist complexes. Against a backdrop of a feeling of dispossession, groups formed around the brothers Edmond andMax Simeoni, the foundations of a political claimregionalist, with the creation, in 1967, of theCorsican regionalist action(ARC).
Aléria: a founding event
At the beginning of the 1970s, the transition from regionalism toautonomism. The period corresponds toReacquisition, that is to say the reclaiming of language, culture, identity, history, artistic and cultural expressions, as well as skills. Battles that are political, cultural (creation of musical groups), or ecological are being fought. Notably the fight against“red mud”of the Italian company Montedison or against thenuclear test projectsthat General de Gaulle wants to carry out on the site of old mines in Balagne (Haute-Corse).
In January 1973, the “Call of Castellare” sealed the birth certificate of Corsican nationalism whose first clandestine movements,Corsican Country Front of Liberation(FPLC) (created on October 8, 1973) orPaolina Justice, are directly derived, alongside other movements.
On the night of January 3 to 4, 1974, Corsica experienced its first “blue night” marked by a wave of attacks. On March 22 of the same year, on the eve of the visit of Prime Minister Pierre Messmer, the Ghjustizia Paolina group detonated a plane at Bastia-Poretta airport. Political violence thus made its appearance in the island’s contemporary history and settled there for decades. During the year 1975, around 226 attacks were recorded.
In August 1975, activists from theAction for the Renaissance of Corsica(ARC), led by Edmond Simeoni, take over a wine cellar of a repatriate in Aleria at gunpoint to denounce the scandal of adulterated wines from which Corsica suffers. But the operation ends in bloodshed: the Minister of the InteriorMichel Poniatowskidecides to use force. Two gendarmes are killed and a militant of the ARC is seriously injured. The event marks the beginning of a period of political tensions and violence between Corsica and the State.
The creation of the FLNC
At the end of 1975, discussions took place among the various clandestine organizations and led to a unification. On May 5, 1976, thebirth of the National Liberation Front of Corsica(FLNC). It marks a turning point in the radicalization process, both in discourse and in actions.
Its creation is announced by a spectacular wave of explosions in the main localities of the island, but also in Nice, Marseille, and Paris. Others will follow. More than 300 will be recorded in 1976, and up to 438 in 1980.
To mark the first anniversary of its existence, in May 1977, the FLNC published its Green Book. Corsica is presented as a colony victim of the oppression exercised by France and its local proxies, the clans. Independence is meant to allow Corsica to put an end to this situation. The dynamic is set in an intellectual context marked by Third Worldist struggles and references to the Algerian War.
During this period, violence intensifies and the “blue nights” follow one after another accompanied by slogans such as “IFF”,The French Out, “the French out”), or even “the suitcase or the coffin.”
This radicalization is partly explained by socio-economic factors. The economic crisis of the 1970s, marked by rising unemployment and the decline of certain key sectors, intensifies thefeeling of marginalizationfelt on the island, particularly in modest or underprivileged communities.
Derivatives and ambiguities of the State
Faced with this rise in clandestine violence, the State adopts an ambivalent strategy. On one hand, it asserts its authority through occasional and spectacular police operations; on the other hand, it seems to tolerate the emergence of “counter-terrorist” groups, modeled after the organizationFrance, the New Action Front against Independence and Autonomy created in 1977. Opposed to nationalists, the group carries out attacks against nationalist militants. Its existence helps establish a climate of widespread violence, where the boundaries between legality and illegality become blurred. Francia maintainstroubled links with political or administrative circles, which fuels suspicions of collusion with the State apparatus.
This situation generates a deep mistrust among the population, who perceive a two-tier justice system where the violence of anti-nationalist groups seems rarely punished.
TheBastelica-Fesch case, in January 1980, represents the culmination of these tensions. An attempted action carried out by Francia in the village of Bastelica (Corse-du-Sud) triggers a chain reaction, leading to a hostage-taking and a spectacular siege of a hotel in Ajaccio. The intervention of the security forces, marked by violent clashes, results in the death of a CRS officer as well as two civilians, completely unrelated to the events. The condemnation of the State’s abuses is unanimous, especially since the French government remains silent.
In 1981, the judicial management of the case reinforced this feeling. Those responsible for the violence related to the parallel networks received lenient treatment, while nationalist militants were heavily sentenced. They would benefit one year later from the amnesty granted by President François Mitterrand. Nevertheless, this inequality contributed to legitimizing, in certain circles, the use of violence as a form of resistance.
Triumph of nationalism
After a fratricidal and violent war waged over a few years between different nationalist factions, the 2000s saw the nationalist vote gradually gain ground in elections. Ultimately, fifty years after the founding of the FLNC, it was the autonomists — for whom the island’s future must involve rejecting violence — who took the upper hand in island political life.
As explained by the political scientistAndria Fazi, the 2017 election results attest to a “mainstreaming” of the nationalist vote, now capable of attracting citizens from all political backgrounds.
During the territorial elections of June 2021,Gilles Simeoni, outgoing president of the Corsican executive, obtains the absolute majority, without alliance with other nationalist lists, and chooses theautonomy as one of its political priorities.
Jean-Paul Pellegrinetti does not work for, advise, own shares in, or receive funds from any organization that could benefit from this article, and has declared no other affiliation apart from his research organization.
–ref. Corsica: at the roots of the political violence of the FLNC years –https://theconversation.com/corse-aux-racines-de-la-violence-politique-des-annees-flnc-281558