BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 27. The Baku Initiative Group has condemned France’s rejection of a reform granting autonomy to Corsica.
This was stated in a press release by Abbas Abbasov, executive director of the Baku Initiative Group, following the French Senate’s rejection of the constitutional reform on Corsican autonomy:
“We, as the Baku Initiative Group, strongly condemn the French Senate’s rejection of the constitutional reform granting autonomy to Corsica. This decision is yet another manifestation of the colonial mindset that still prevails in French political circles, a blatant disregard for the will of the Corsican people, and a deep chasm between official Paris’s statements on the right of peoples to self-determination and its actual policies.
The events that took place on October 26, 2026, in the French Senate demonstrated once again that the Macron regime is unwilling to accept the Corsican people’s desire to determine their own political future, preserve their national identity, and exercise the right to self-government on their own land.
Such disregard for the political negotiations that have been ongoing for more than four years, the agreements reached, and the will expressed by Corsica’s democratically elected representatives is unacceptable. In particular, the exclusion from the bill of provisions recognizing the distinct historical, linguistic, and cultural identity of the Corsicans, as well as their special connection to their homeland, demonstrates the extent to which France’s political elite refuses to acknowledge the collective identity of the Corsican people.
France, on the one hand, attempts to lecture the world on democracy, human rights, and the freedom of peoples, while on the other hand, it perceives even the most basic political demands of the peoples in the territories under its control as a threat.
Portraying the Corsican people’s demand for autonomy as a threat to France’s unity seems particularly absurd. The preservation of a people’s language, culture, historical identity, and political authority is a fundamental right. The real threat lies in the systematic rejection of these legitimate demands and the sacrifice of the political will of the peoples to serve the interests of the central government.
The Baku Initiative Group calls on the French authorities to respect the legitimate will of the Corsican people, to recognize their political, cultural, and linguistic rights, to remain faithful to the agreements reached, and to demonstrate genuine political will on the issue of autonomy; it also calls on the international community, human rights organizations, and relevant international institutions not to remain indifferent to this injustice perpetrated by the French state against the legitimate political demands of the Corsican people,” the statement reads.
