Expert: Nationalists will use ban on Corsican language to fight government

The decision of the Bastia court to ban the use of the Corsican language in Corsica during the performance of public duties will likely encourage the people of Corsica to speak their language more often or even start learning it from scratch, Italian political scientist, senior analyst at Geopolitica.info Salvatore Santangelo told Report.

“The ban states that Corsica-based politicians will be obliged to use French during their debates, but is it feasible? I don’t think so. I see this ban as risky, since it can – and it will – be used by Corsican nationalists to revive their fight against the central government, which is, above all, a cultural one," he said.

Corsican people will continue to speak Corsican – this ban won’t affect their subnational identity, it only deals with intra-and interinstitutional communication among policy-makers, he noted.

"France is being confronted by the rise of neo-communitarian trends, from the evergreen Corsican nationalism to the relatively new banlieue separatism, which it doesn’t really know how to deal with," the expert said, adding that France is sponsoring centralizing policies and promoting the renationalization of its masses.