FRANCE: France's Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Lionel Jospin, suffered a major setback yesterday when part of his self-government law for the troubled island of Corsica was declared unconstitutional.
The country's highest judicial authority ruled that the centrepiece of the law -- a clause granting the Corsican parliament limited powers to adapt some national legislation to suit the island's needs - was a breach of the principle of national unity.
It was the third time in a month that the Constitutional Council had struck down central parts of Jospin's legislative programme.
In December it banned the government from raiding the country's social security budget to meet the costs of introducing a 35-hour week and last Saturday it said a law preventing companies shedding workers to restructure was an "attack on the freedom of enterprise".
Just three months before presidential elections, the reverse is another severe embarrassment for Mr Jospin, who is campaigning on a record in office that is gradually being shorn of some of its principle parts.
The elections are expected to pit Mr Jospin against the right-wing incumbent Mr Jacques Chirac. General elections will follow in June.
The Constitutional Council said only the French parliament had the power to pass laws and the Corsican parliament could not be granted that power unless the French constitution was changed.
It said the Corsican assembly had the right to modify regulations passed in Paris to suit the island's needs under certain conditions.
Other parts of the weakened bill, it said, including a clause making the Corsican language part of the school curriculum, were not unconstitutional but ruled Corsican lessons could not be made obligatory.
A provision in the bill relaxing planning permission requirements for developers on the Corsican coast was thrown out by the Greens before the law was adopted last year.
A statement from Mr Jospin's office yesterday said government policy towards Corsica and its efforts to "re-establish the rule of law" on the island were "the only way forward". It did not comment on the Council's ruling. - (AFP)