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In Corsica, COVID-19 Fuels Nationalist Demands for Greater Autonomy

Lisa Bryant

   PARIS - The daily flights and ferries carrying tourists and French
   retirees seem a distant memory, even as a chunk of the diaspora has
   returned to ancestral villages.
   Just 200 kilometers across the Mediterranean, the island of Corsica has
   never seemed so cut off from mainland France. The coronavirus has
   restored a sense of identity and separation that independence fighters
   have long sought.
   The pandemic, however, is also fueling more tangible demands. The
   nationalists running the island's government want to manage the health
   crisis "the Corsican way," which includes piloting a controversial
   treatment program and deciding on school openings.
   "Our strategy needs to be adapted to the reality on the ground," said
   Gilles Simeoni, president of the island's executive council.

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