French Senate rejects constitutional reform on Corsican autonomy by 181 votes to 134; Corsican nationalists quit talks

The French Senate rejected the constitutional bill “for an autonomous Corsica within the Republic” in a vote on the night of Monday 26 October, by 181 votes to 134 with 25 abstentions, according to the Senate’s official record.

The text had been heavily amended at the initiative of the right before the final vote, franceinfo reported. The Les Républicains group voted 122 in favour of the amended text. The Centrist Union, Socialist, Ecologist and Union Nationale pour les Territoires groups voted against, as did most members of the RDSE and RDPI groups. Most Communist senators abstained.

Any constitutional reform needs the National Assembly and the Senate to agree, so the vote puts the next steps of the process in doubt, franceinfo reported.

Reactions

Corsica’s autonomist camp announced on Monday evening that it was withdrawing from the “Beauvau process”, the talks started in 2022 that were meant to give the island special law-making powers, franceinfo and Le Figaro reported.

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked Françoise Gatel, the minister for regional planning, to “bring together all the stakeholders in the process to find solutions to keep this issue moving forward”, his office told France Inter.

Background

Corsica, a Mediterranean island of about 350,000 people, has a special status as a single territorial authority, the Collectivité de Corse. The autonomy reform was a response to demands from Corsican nationalists, who control the island’s assembly.