Man, I hadn’t even heard about this:

thelocal.fr

Corsica has had 107 political killings since 2007. It’s being called ‘mafia’ killings but I’m not sure if they’re saying that’s the Cosa Nostra or just a mafia-like place.

“I am not sensitive to fear, although maybe that’s a handicap I have,” he said. “The guards are very professional but it makes it hard to go shopping in the supermarket with two people next to me,” said Giacobbi, who has decided to spend his summer holidays this year in India rather than in Corsica.

‘I am not interested in money, you cannot corrupt me’

Nearly all of Corsica’s murders have been blamed on organised crime, with rival gangs engaged in turf wars to control everything from drug trafficking to gambling and prostitution.

A property boom in recent years has encouraged criminal gangs to bury their “dirty money” in property and land.

With hardened criminals becoming property speculators, local officials have come under intense pressure every time they are asked to grant planning permission for new homes or developments. With so much money at stake and officials living in fear, corruption is never far away.

Giacobbi believes corruption is one of the reasons why criminals want to target him specifically.

“I am not interested in money and I am not involved at all in corruption. It is impossible to corrupt me and they know that,” he said.

Giacobbi believes his decision to ask police to investigate every tender for public works programmes in Corsica – worth millions of euros each year – for any evidence of corruption, may have rubbed some dangerous people up the wrong way.

I also didn’t know Corsica was still a region of France.