International Journal on Criminology
the violence exercised by the autonomist movements . The violence exercised by the Corsican nationalist movements ( Corsican National Liberation Front [ FLNC ], Resistenza , Fronte Ribellu , Armata Corsa , Collectif Unita , Indipendenza , Unione di U populu Corsu [ UPC ], etc .) can be explained by the fact that they consider themselves to be fighting as a national liberation movement . From the nationalist and autonomist point of view , Corsican political violence is part of a clear and established logic of opposition to the republican and unitary conception of France . Indeed , “ violence is integrated into it either as an element of Corsican culture and in this sense part of the communitarian pretension , or more simply as a natural response to the autism of the State incapable of recognising within it a form of cultural plurality .” 6
On the other hand , the action of the Basque nationalists ( Euskadi Ta Askatasuna [ ETA ], the Batasuna party , Iparretarrak , or the Basque Nationalist Party [ PNB ]) bears a strong resemblance to that of the Corsicans with regard to the idea of claiming a territory to be liberated and the method used to do so .
Finally , and still quite similarly , the Breton movements ( Front de libération de la Bretagne [ FLB ], Union démocratique bretonne [ UDB ]) also exercised violence — less strong than that of Corsica or the Basque country — but installed in any case in the long term . The majority of these nationalist movements opted for a federal system , rather than autonomy , as in the Corsican or Basque movements . Nevertheless , different autonomist movements with different identity demands maintain very good relations , to the extent that Brittany has been a point of refuge and a rear base for Basque militants driven underground by police operations in France and Spain , and by the exactions committed by the Anti-Terrorist Liberation Groups ( GAL ).
It is clear that these demands are localized , but that they are nonetheless significant .
B . Radical Movements
Under the Fifth Republic , the turning point of the protest movements was May 1968 , which presented a break with the expressions of rebellion . If the various radical movements existed before 1968 , there was at that time a structuring of the extreme left , which then took over the political terrain .
The radical movements are of two types : on the one hand , they are intellectual movements dedicated to taking a critique to the root of the problem , that is to say , “ whose critique must also envisage a deep questioning that leads to a real break with this system ” 7 and , on the other hand , as far as the police
6 Crettiez ( X .), “ La violence politique en Corse : état des lieux ,” pp . 123-134 , in Crettiez ( X .) et Mucchielli ( L .), Les violences politiques en Europe . Un état des lieux , La découverte , Paris , 2010 , p . 125 .
7 Biagni ( C .), Carnino ( G .) et Marcolini ( P .), Radicalité . 20 penseurs vraiment critiques , L ’ échappée , 98