French President Emmanuel Macron addresses the Corsican regional assembly in Ajaccio on September 28, 2023. (Photo by AFP)

French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed to grant a form of autonomy within the French Republic to the Mediterranean island of Corsica, a region that mostly seeks autonomy from mainland France.

The French leader on Thursday said he would throw his weight behind a status of autonomy for Corsica, describing the move as historic.

Addressing the Corsican Assembly during a trip to Ajaccio, the island’s largest settlement, Macron stressed that We should have the courage to establish a form of autonomy for Corsica within France.

It is time to build autonomy for Corsica within the Republic, he said, warning, We would all be failing if we left things as they are.

Macron vowed to introduce legislation that would fully anchor Corsica in the French republic, and recognize the uniqueness of its Mediterranean island nature and its relationship with the world.

Last year, the island, one of the 18 regions of France, was engulfed in violence after Corsican independence activist Yvan Colonna was killed at the Arles prison in southern France. The deadly attack sent Corsica to the top of the French political agenda.

Jailed for life over the 1998 murder of the region’s prefect Claude Erignac, Colonna was stabbed to death by another inmate on March 21, 2022.

The island’s executive Gilles Simeoni told Macron on Thursday that Colona’s killing triggered unbelievable violence that brought Corsica to the brink of widespread conflict.

The island has long wanted more say in its own affairs. Furthermore, Corsicans want an official status for their language and protection from outsiders buying up land, a pair of thorny requests that Paris is reluctant to grant.

Corsica must ... become the autonomous territory it ought to be, said regional parliament speaker Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis ahead of Macron’s speech.

Corsica’s young people particularly feel hugely dispossessed, she further told the French president.

Macron also set a six-month deadline for the government and Corsican political parties to reach an agreement with Paris on a new law that would change the French constitution to amend Corsica’s status.

This will not be autonomy against the state, nor autonomy without the state, he also warned.

Following decades of violent struggle, Corsica’s nationalists have finally accepted the democratic process over the past decade.