Thank you very much for watching. Will corsica turning to francis catalonia president Emmanuel Mccall has began a two day visit to the mediterranean island where there is growing demand for greater autonomy from france as separatist movements rise across europe how will it affect this region this is inside story. Though and welcome to the Program Fully back to full scotland and catalonia are well known hotspots in europe for the struggle for independence but they are many other secessionist movements across the continent some seeking to break away others simply wanting more say in france the island of corsica has long sought to have greater autonomy from the Central Government in paris and with nationalists winning big in Regional Elections theres been more pressure on the government to negotiate french president emanuel call arrived in course account tuesday with a backdrop of a rising nationalist sentiment on the island some corsicans want special status and greater autonomy this is not a new demand and has begun french governments for decades and president michel is expected to set the tone for relations with paris moving forward thousands of nationalists supporters wash the streets ahead of his visit calling for democracy this is what some of them had to say. We want proceeded to be able to manage itself like New Caledonia or guadalupe were on the other side of the mediterranean obviously we are different we are waiting for this recognition. We are here for our young people so the course will be better on all levels so they can find work stay time and develop corsica well lets take a closer look now at the nationalist movement in course ago which has been seeking greater autonomy since the one nine hundred sixty s. The mediterranean island has been part of france in seven hundred sixty eight but is geographically closer to the thailand coast and has a population of three hundred thirty thousand despite being a popular Tourist Destination corsica is one of the nice developed regions of france some and now asking for changes to the constitution that would give the island special status and a recognition of the corsican language the islands main separatist group the National Liberation front of corsica announced a cease fire in twenty fourteen after a series of bomb attacks in the mid one nine hundred seventy s. Well lets bring in our guest now in the french city of samarra. Who is a Senior Research fellow at the Global Policy institute and in edinburgh scotland Michael Keating professor at the university of aberdeen and director of the center for constitutional change welcome to you both thank you so much for being on inside story. If i can start with you the corsica issue had been quiet for some time now in the french political scene why we seeing this renewed push for tommy now in this renewed push for special satis now. Well its been quite for quite a wide yes its as pacified in the last three years since two thousand and fourteen when the corsican the berisha movement which really started in the mid seventys so forty years before decided to give up the Armed Struggle and to come out of country can distant tea and to Start Playing their normal political game as a result of that they were elected in two thousand and fifteen to the original count so are there more again that the mist and independent movement who joined forces war and fifty six percent of the vote in the december election for the regime or a some are not to have a large majority in the National Assembly they are ready to discuss put to cli with the new president of france immigrant macor or say during his campaign that he was ready to make some. Amendments to the constitution which would give corsica morton a jack as you say at the nationalists achieve their best ever performance in decembers Regional Elections to what do you attribute the success what has fueled this mean huge sense of nationalism and among corsicans. Or its been there for quite a while it is at the corsicans of a strong i dont have only been part of france for two hundred fifty years they were annexed by france in seventeen fifty eight and theyve always had a very strong record i dont all language their own cultures of course it goes a very generous people and they feel a bit frustrate theyve been building feeling very frustrated especially these a one as fake is the fact that this island is very beautiful or not which attracts rows of tourists and will feed french people who build in areas where they can no longer afford to. To buy property themselves and thats one of the elements which is which one of the demands actually of the National Response is to create a special resistant status which would then priority on the Housing Market which is obviously a very difficult thing to achieve but the sense is a sense that your folk are so find it everywhere its not just corsica you can see it in the rest of europe in scotland in in or out with the advent of europe. Many countries many regions feel that they should have or identity more of their local relive all right and we are after so in france a few of the regions with the stronger than the less and forget that france is constituted of many different areas the basque region to britain region to front as region to some border region all of them with a strong identity which is contrary to the french tradition of uniformity within the country but of course you go you see has a head start because it is an island right as he say jpac theres been a lot of talk on the rise of separatist movements across europe in recent years there was a Scottish Referendum on independence in twenty fourteen of course which saw scott. And naturally vote against leaving the United Kingdom in italy to northern regions voted last year to negotiate greater autonomy from rome and then theres of course Spain Catalonia controversial secession referendum in october last year political crisis including the arrests and charges against. Michael keating in edinburgh theres concern especially within the European Union a contagion effect that movie in europe could seek to establish their own states do you think that what happened in spain in catalonia could happen in france in corsica for instance. Well i live corsica to my colleagues thats been explaining it but in fact there are very few separatist movements in europe scotland catalonia that have hard referendums have several days parties in government and that is about it what were seeing elsewhere is the rise of regionalism and autonomy which is not quite the same thing and the two italian cases you mentioned are regions looking for autonomy within its really they there was a separatist movement of the leg an order around the notion of danny that has been pretty much abandoned even in spain the basque so moving away from separatism towards negotiating more autonomy which is where we are in scotland now this is got a lot to do with european integration its got a lot to do with globalization and the feeling in these territories that they dont really need the Central States anymore theyve got to make their own way in the world and sometimes this occurs in wealthy regions not always sometimes in wealthy regions who resent having to pay for the poor our compatriots when they have to make their own way in a competitive world so theres an economic as well as a cultural dimension to this michel the Independence Movement in spain and scotland use membership of the European Union as something that would facilitate independence do you think that helped or hindered their goals their aspirations. Well in the case of catalonia it made independence look rather moral plausible because it would keep open access to the spanish market as well as the European Market because alone here is that creating a nation that very little euro skepticism in spain anyway that the European Union made it clear that it would not recognize a unilateral declaration of independence by catalonia or spain didnt recognize it wouldnt recognize it in scotland its different because the referendum was agreed with the United Kingdom government so had gotten voted to become independent there would be no reason for any other member state to prevent it becoming a full member of the European Union indeed no member state actually did say they would retire or not even spain the further complication of course is that scotland voted by a large majority to remain in the European Union of the time of the directive referendum and so is the scots who want to stay in the European Union and the english who want to pull out and that is put the whole question of independence back on the agenda and created the possibility of a european boundary running between england and scotland what about the case of know the night in michael thats even more complicated because Northern Ireland voted to remain in the European Union as well although there was a division in the nationalist Community Voted to remain by a large majority the Protestant Community the unionists by a small majority to leave. If the United Kingdom leaves the European Union this creates a european hard border between the two parts of ireland in complete contradiction to everything that been achieved in the Peace Process in the last twenty years and the Irish Government who made it very clear that part of the deal that the u. K. Has with the European Union will be resolving that border question but the United Kingdom has not come up with any proposals of the how that is going to be done they just keep on going round and round the problem or lets bring back jack harlow into the conversation and talk a bit more about corsica and franz when it comes to size and clout a lot of people would say that corsica is nowhere near catalonia because corsica is still very reliant on mainland france so explain to our viewers around the world what is behind this desire for greater autonomy and in what ways do nationally sin corsica feel they can benefit from being less tied to the Central Government in paris. Yes indicators of corsica during indication is not it couldnt make is culture or course a god depends on french for financing on a french budget it receives two rian euros more than he contributes so it needs it needs french money and up to now many people said that the independent this movement was more like a racket you know not to try to extract more and more financing from different states through frets and so on and listen there wasnt enough mafia like dimension within the corsican independent disprove that were there are quite a few criminals now that do are needed by the disapprove mint is. Pretty chick or more mature they. Did talk about autonomy is there but distin not demand for independence because. So in many millions not guns were you saying that independents are is not a long term aspiration for the National Spirit if course youve given up his demeanor to be economically independent and a moment to just talking about autonomy and asking for fisk tack special tax status to fear in france italy special tax status could lead to course a guy becoming a tax haven and therefore as a way to guarantee is financial future but voters of india are already talking about that the enemy and if it was a referendum you could say that in corsica people would vote against independence because they know which side their bread is buttered on what if there was a referendum involving the older of france and british sure that a majority of the french would vote for independence for corsica because many of them are actually really fed up of worth fed up with the net sure of the deponent this movement is only years and is mafia like. Approach to negotiations. Michael well you know looking at you know the wider europe what is shilling you say that you know when we talk of Independence Movement there are really two to Independence Movement that we should focus on and that is scotland and spain but across the continent regions in the past have sought greater autonomy from their Central Government this weve seen a rise in in a way all of these nationalist movement whats whats behind that well youve got to remember the borders between european states are pretty artificial theyre fairly recent we mustnt assume that something wrong with the system because people want to shift the boundaries and part of it is about democratization part of it is about culture part of it is about economics a lot of it is about the construction of europe and the aspiration for a europe that is not just built upon nation states but its not a universal trend theres not a lot of this in scandinavia or in Eastern Europe the emphasis now is upon state nationalism its about polish nationalism hungary and nationalism rather than regionalism so this phenomenon is confined to a few countries where there is a coincidence of economic grievances with cultural concerns with political alienation and these are in spain in belgium in the United Kingdom and to some extent in france with with the case of corsica which is attractive pointed out has strong historical and Cultural Roots to it and i present my corps is currently under pressure because the nationalists have done quite well in recent elections and some of my calls on lies have said he would make a gesture towards the nationalists but what gestures can he realistically make without going against a french constitution i mean even granting special status to corsican residents or an official role for the corsican language would go against the french constitution when it. Indeed. Because he says in france that the constitution says that the french is it indivisible but you can have some special taters for some regions such as the overseas territories much unique. Other for you and me because it would be ready to grant a right to be different but it does do corsicas would like in french consideration dimension of their recognition of the cosequin people which goes against the french concept which is a bit in my opinion and so be too strict of uniformity a quality and uniformity everyone is equal or whether you you cant have privileges that go back to the revolution to matric system and so on disclosure is designed to check combined side of the French Republic which case which has made every effort to kill any cultural difference between the before it for example and from brittany it was a deliberate campaign in the one nine hundred twenty s. To eradicate dipper tonight which he did quite successfully in corsica it was the same company but of course sick of being a knight and. Very has been a vote to retaliate and True Development of the Independence Movement in the seventies people have been learning course you can get it Everyone Wants to speak of morris able to speak both can do for is about the dependent missed out demanding the. Status for corsican language and french it is totally an excellent board to the french because if you require every document to be written in course you can as well being french it would cost a fortune and if you require it all or a few shows in corsica to speak course it can as well as french it would be discrimination against dont go see. Because in france there is french and therefore the demand for a few shores language is very difficult to be tax status some ground can be found some consensus can be found on earth is of taxes isnt making sure who. Doesnt know fiske order to me in order so. The very reasonable or right but some of the you have to use a measure mans out of a reasonable but what can they realistically expect from president michael i mean can he succeed where his predecessors have failed can he rein in these nationalists in corsica. It will not be easy but what did expect is that prisoner macor us or has been insistent that you wanted a good situation or reform in france for with less less m. P. These different. On house debt because sure if it would just to be adopted but for a fifth of parliament both houses of Parliament Referendum could include a chant saying that theres a right for regions to be different or to have a slightly different status to give more or to not be so within that they could be a position within a framework of national or is a sure reform but i dont think that you would be in a position to accept to write as of course you go to the missed wont mention in the constitution of the existence of the corsican people that would go against the french principle of indivisibility michael and Michael Keaton in edinburgh weve talked about how some of the Central Government have been dealing with the national set and you know the issue of more autonomy but what about the European Union you know brussels how have they handled this so far. Theyre not handle that well atoll well when the European Union expanded their central and Eastern Europe they had provisions about minority rights and about concern about the structure of government and so on as soon as the country gets into the European Union its no longer subject to the conditionality so there was a very confused response to the situation in scotland where one control became independent some European Countries recognize it didnt they have a different response every time a crisis comes up and in the case of catalonia they just werent present they just mouths the slogans about it being an internal spanish matter when its clearly something of greater International Important so theres a little bit done through the council of europe through the Venice Commission but of the european level is a very weak capacity to deal with these things which are going to become a challenge to europe in the future if they are going to be a challenge taking the example of catalonia for instance you have a political crisis there that shows no sign of ending anytime soon who should be stepping in to resolve if you think. Well it would be useful to have some kind of International Arbitration i mentioned the council of europe and the Venice Commission the European Commission really isnt equipped to deal with these kinds of things the council of ministers perhaps but were seeing a number of cases and there will be more in the balkans for example where there is a need work is a european responsibility and they dont even have any clear criteria to work on they would recognize a breakaway states or not there was no clear judgment about the case of scotland and that would have been a fairly easy one in the case of spain of course possibly theres nothing that europe can do because both sides in spain in the catalonian argument who got themselves in crunch into absolutely. Deadlock there with little room for compromise but were certainly one would expect europe because many nationalists who look to europe as a way of resolving these questions of getting beyond the model of the nation state but your response is really being to go back to the old model of the nation state and say that its nothing to do with us that i think is not satisfactory any longer ok well is that call on lets end with whats happening in france and corsica the recently elected administration in corsica has said you know if they dont get the special status that theyre asking for from the Central Government in paris and they would go ahead and push for statehood could we see a similar crisis in france than the one that weve seen in and spain and catalonia and theres some who are even said that they could be a return of the violence that we saw in france back in the seventys and eightys do you share that concern. Yeah i think it would be a more actually i dont think you would have a movement such as it get that when yeah because as i said earlier most corsicans dont want to be dependent depend too much on friends financing and to stage many. Actually french cities and so on and it would make deciduous a bit secure and precarious but you could have once again a return to violence violence is never far from the surface you know in corsica which is a and i dont know with very specific traditions of candice to the t s b a good intro or ways there are very rebellious people there would you know to to gain what more or from the government resort to violence action again yes that would be the most likely. Where we hope it doesnt get to that thank you very much for speaking to us both Jack Harbaugh Michael Keating thank you both for being on inside story and thank you for watching you can always watch this program again any time by visiting our website at aljazeera dot com for further discussion go to our Facebook Page thats facebook dot com for slash inside story and you can also join the conversation on twitter of course the handle is at eighty eight in fact stowing from me funny that one whole team thank you for watching i found out. Travel often. By tranquil warped views and cool forests may provide wild world. Walks of. By icons landmarks valleys and scotlands. Live for adventure. Discovery jobs because far away places closer. Going this is together with cats i always. 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