Some will see the final end of an era. Other, the confirmation of a dynamic of conquest that has not waned despite the exercise of power. Anyway, the second round of the municipal elections has come as a new "thunderbolt" in the world of politics in corsica. By winning a series of victories on Sunday evening, the nationalists, in command of the region from 2015, have silenced their critics who have been predicting already a form of wear and tear and the end of a long state of grace. The message from the polls was quite different. These municipal governments could increase their dominance in the political life of the islands.
the Symbol of this new surge in nationalist, Porto-Vecchio, a historical strongholds of the right in the extreme south of the island, is "fallen" this Sunday evening. Candidate for the fourth time in a row in this fortress acquired over nearly a century to the family Rocca Serra, the autonomist Jean-Christophe Angelini sign the more blaring of the victories of the June 28, by sounding the death knell of the dynasty. With 45% of the vote, the heir to the clan Rocca Serra, Georges Mela, has lost the reins of the family fief, the third largest city of the island and the high place of the island tourism. An earthquake on the scale of the policy in corsica. "This evening, a century of history comes to an end, has triumphed over Jean-Christophe Angelini, building on the outcome of the polls. This is a victory that comes from far away. The end of an era. "
The omnipresence of Gilles Simeoni
To Bastia, the wind electoral blew in the same direction. In the second city of the island, the chief town of the Haute-Corse, the outgoing mayor, the nationalist Pierre Savelli, allied to a party of the left and the right, has been elected with nearly 50 % of the vote. This old activist of the cause autonomist has succeeded to keep this new feud nationalist in a triangular face of a left-right coalition led by a newcomer in politics, Jean-Sebastien de Casalta (39, 7 %), and another list on the left. The game was far from won. With just 30.4% of the vote in the evening of the first round, the 15 march, the outgoing mayor, in a runoff, adverse and severely shaken, had to make a tower of force to impose it. The second round allowed him to reverse the trend.
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It must be said that the outgoing majority played big in this town, once a stronghold history of the radical Party of the left, snatched as a symbol to the clan Zuccarelli by Gilles Simeoni in 2014. Just sitting in the chair of mayor, the last one had left Bastia to take the reins of the region the following year. Long touted as the " eternal mayor replacing ", inducted into the departure of his mentor, January 7, 2016, Pierre Savelli has conquered its legitimacy in the face of universal suffrage. Despite the ubiquity of Gilles Simeoni in this campaign in seventh position on the list, the outgoing mayor consolidates his seat. Without the alliance between the two tours, and despite internal divisions, the simeonistes have been able to demonstrate that they did not need the support of their partners, the pro-independence to maintain the city. They should even benefit from the governance of the agglomeration community of Bastia, the second largest on the island. But this is not all. Observers have not failed, during the campaign, saying that a defeat of the nationalists in Bastia hypothéquerait seriously their chances of retaining the region. Besides the backlash that the election of Jean-Christophe Angelini in Porto-Vecchio, long committed to in a battle for leadership with Gilles Simeoni, would not have failed to cause within the nationalist movement. That is to say, if the issue of the municipal largely exceeded the borders of the city of Bastia.
nine-months of regional elections, the nationalists, until then, badly in need of anchoring in the local plan, are affirmed Sunday as the first political force in the island in spite of the traditional parties that had relied on a context of division, to put an end to their ascent.
After the success, the time divisions
If the first round of the 15th of march, well short of their hopes, had been favorable to the right, which has preserved, without difficulty, many of its strongholds in Corte, Borgo, Sartène, Calvi, Ghisonaccia or still in the first town in Corsica, in Ajaccio, the second has largely reversed the balance of power. Several communes of average size are finally dropped in the pot nationalist, as Figari, acquired John Giuseppi, one of the closest advisors of the president of the Assembly of Corsica, Jean-Guy Talamoni.
The general dynamics confirms the collapse of the traditional parties in the island, and a fortiori, on the left virtually disappeared from the political landscape of the islands. After their unbroken series of successes " historical ", which swept away the forces of the right and left since the regional 2015 until the parliamentary 2017, at the end of forty years spent in the opposition, the nationalists held the rope.
still, these victories do not erase the uneasy relationship between two strong men of their movement, Jean-Christophe Angelini and Gilles Simeoni. Or even the divisions more visible, between the latter and his ally Jean-Guy Talamoni, ever sparing of critical of the policy conducted by the head of the regional executive. Despite the state of grace that continues in the ballot box, and drags on even longer than usual, the nationalists know that the balance sheet of the last six years is mixed, and that they must confront the requirement of result. Never a political movement had, in effect, concentrated as much power in the island. "The confidence that has been manifested engages us and compels us, we now have all the tools to build our country ", he said, the serious tone, Gilles Simeoni on the evening of the land of 2017, which actaient the domination of the nationalist community of Corsica, the super-entity that is unique in France, the fruit of the fusion of the two counties, island and the region.
Because the issue is mainly at this level.
