● Nationalists announce their upcoming victory

The nationalist coalition of the autonomist Gilles Simeoni and the separatist Jean-Guy Talamoni headed Sunday night towards a very large victory in the second round of territorial elections in Corsica, with 56.5% of the votes cast in his favor according to results 90% of registered voters. Earlier, preliminary partial results disseminated by the prefecture, covering just over 39% of the ballots counted - representing 13.15% of registrants - gave the list of Gilles Simeoni largely in the lead, with 60.2% of the votes cast. , in front of the list of the Republic in March to 15,2%, a list of regionalist right to 14,8% and the list supported by LR to 9,9%.

• Low participation rate

According to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior, attendance was relatively low Sunday noon with a rate of 16.07%, against 17.52% at the same time Sunday, December 3 for the first round, which suggests, except huge surprise, a victory of the nationalists.

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At the exit of the polling station where he had gone Sunday morning, the autonomist Gilles Simeoni, head of the nationalist coalition list, hoped "even more participation, perhaps the first round will have had a demobilizing effect, I hope not". The stake of the participation was also underlined by Jean-Guy Talamoni, the 5th independentist leader on the list, who said however "quite serene" as for the result of the election.

• Nationalists largely in the lead in the first round

With his triumphal first-round score (45.36%), the list Pè a Corsica (For Corsica) led by Gilles Simeoni is in a position to consolidate his score, notably thanks to the probable transfer of most of the 6.69 % of the votes obtained by the small independentist party U Rinnovu in the first round. If Rinnovu refused to negotiate a rapprochement with Pè a Corsica and did not give instructions for voting, Paul-Felix Benedetti, his head of the list, welcomed the evening of the first round that "the nationalists in their entirety have obtained an absolute majority ". He also said that personally, he would vote for the list of Pè a Corsica. Pè a Corsica should also benefit from the winner's bonus provided for by the proportional vote, ie 11 seats allocated to the list that came first in the second round.

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The other three lists in the race came far behind in the first round: that of the regionalist right of Jean-Martin Mondoloni obtained 14.97% of the vote before the Republicans led by Valérie Bozzi (12.77%) and Emmanuel Macron's presidential party, the Republic en Marche, led by Jean-Charles Orsucci (11.26%).

• "More autonomy"

If the question of independence is not on the agenda, the nationalist coalition hopes to be able to move forward in the event of victory over its three key demands: amnesty for "political prisoners", co-officiality of the language Corsican and resident status, to fight, according to the nationalists, real estate speculation on the Island.

The "natios", which aim at obtaining a real status of autonomy within three years and its effective implementation within 10 years, are already waiting for the state's response. "The government will work with the executive that has been chosen by Corsican voters," soberly commented on Monday the spokesman of the government, Benjamin Griveaux. "It is certainly the most important election that Corsica has ever known," for its part estimated Wednesday on France 3, Valerie Bozzi, the head of the list of right backed by the party Republicans.