If Corsica doesn’t get autonomy, it may ask for independence

STAND in Fozzano (pictured), a hamlet of stone houses perched above the spectacular western coast of Corsica, and it is easy to see why locals think of themselves as special. Rugged mountains tower behind. Below, the Mediterranean glimmers under a setting sun. Gilles Simeoni, a visiting politician in a duffel coat, tells a crowd that villages like theirs are the repository of the island’s true, “deep culture”. He earns appreciative nods and supportive muttering as strong coffee and dark chocolates are passed round.

Corsicans have taken a shine to Mr Simeoni and his fellow nationalists. They voted on December 3rd for a new territorial council that will combine the island’s north and south into a single administrative unit. In the first round, the Pè a Corsica movement which he jointly leads won an impressive 45% of the vote. (La République En Marche, the party led by France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, came fourth with just 11%.) The run-off election on December 10th will probably confirm that nationalists will run the council, as they have for the past two years.