A French court has banned the use of the Corsican language in a regional assembly on the island of Corsica, located in the Mediterranean Sea. This decision dealt a blow to the independence movement, which has been seeking greater recognition and influence for the Corsican language.

The Administrative Court of Appeal of Marseille ruled that the use of any language other than French in the country’s elected bodies is prohibited by the French Constitution.

"The language of the Republic is French," the court quoted from the French Constitution of 1958, stating that French is mandatory for all state functions.

Several dozen regional languages are still spoken in France, among which Corsican is one of the most prominent, alongside Alsatian, Basque, and Breton.

Since the French Revolution, the country's highly centralized government has sought to limit the use of regional languages, viewing them as potential tools for political autonomy and separatism.

Last week, President Emmanuel Macron emphasized that "regional languages were used as a means of dividing the nation." According to him, the French language has become "the basis of national unity."

The appeal was filed by the Corsican Executive Council (CDC) after the island's administrative court annulled all meetings of the assembly held in Corsican and rejected the CDC’s decision to allow the use of the local language in debates.

Corsica's Executive Council now plans to refer the case to the Council of State, France's highest court for cases involving government agencies.

The president of the Executive Council of Corsica, Gilles Simeoni, and the head of the assembly, Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis, called the court’s decision "contrary to European and international legislation protecting fundamental language rights."

They expressed hope for support from the EU and called for a revision of the French Constitution to grant Corsican an "official status."

The Movement for Autonomy on the Island

Corsica, a picturesque island in the Mediterranean, is an integral part of the French Republic but enjoys greater autonomy, particularly in cultural and educational matters, compared to other regions of France.

Relations between the island's autonomy movement and the central government in Paris have been tense, with episodes of violence marking the island’s history of independence struggles.

In 1998, the highest representative of the central government in Corsica, Prefect Claude Erignac, was assassinated in the street, shot three times in the head by Corsican independence fighters.

Ivan Kolonna, convicted of this murder, was later attacked in a prison gym in 2022 and died from his injuries.