Corsica continues to divide Chirac and Jospin

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- President Jacques Chirac and his Prime Minister Lionel Jospin illustrated their growing rivalry on Wednesday, continuing their dispute over devolution for Corsica.

Jospin and Chirac disagree over the Corsica bill

The conservative head of state staked out his objections to the Corsica bill at a cabinet meeting which examined the measures before sending them to the National Assembly.

The exchanges are a foretaste of their growing rivalry in the run-up to presidential elections next year when Jospin is expected to challenge Chirac for the Presidency.

Chirac told ministers in Jospin's coalition cabinet there was a strong risk that certain elements of the draft could be unconstitutional and that the law could pitch highly centralised France on an unwelcome course towards a federalist system.

Jospin, speaking before Chirac, said there was nothing unconstitutional about the draft and argued that reservations expressed by the Council of State, a high-level body that examines draft laws should not bind parliament.

The Corsica bill provides for the island to make more of its own laws and teach the Corsican dialect in local schools.

Jospin agreed the ground-breaking reforms last July after months of talks with Corsican politicians aimed at ending 20 years of separatist violence on the island.

Building up for a campaign he is expected to fight on proposals to modernise France, Jospin told his ministers on Wednesday that the draft was already paying dividends.

"There is a regression in violence and the hope of a solution," he said. "It is in nobody's interest to compromise that."

Though modest by the standards of devolution in many other European Union countries, the Corsica plan represents a first step away from the highly centralised state that France has had since Napoleon.

While Chirac said reforms were vital for Corsica and that France was too strongly centralised, he cautioned that the draft legislation could either lead to independence for the island or to the fragmentation of the country.

De facto federalism, he said, was not in the national interest. He indicated that fundamental changes to the French political system should be the subject of a referendum.

Prime Minister's Office
Office of the French President
The National Assembly
Corsica Administration

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