“Help yourself, it’s free”François-Xavier Bustillo slides by, radiant, with that inimitable mixed accent that marks at the same time his Spanish birth, the Italian education of his Franciscan youth and, for thirty years, his French religious life. What a beautiful afternoon this August 29, under the softness of the summer sun setting over Ajaccio. The cardinal’s coat of arms, the crest of his Basque-Navarrean family associated with a Moor’s head, extends from the first floor of the newly restored bishopric. In the courtyard, tents and abundant buffets of Corsican specialties are set up for the hundreds of friends invited to celebrate the Legion of Honor of the 55-year-old prelate, the object of a fascinating “bustilomania” in Corsica even before his last title. of glory: attracting the Pope on the island.
For this ceremony, the cardinal wanted to do things in a big way. He himself prepared the guest list, “personal for a personal evening”few priests and priests, but all the power figures on the island. The future minister Catherine Vautrin, today responsible for the island file within the Barnier government, the prefect of Corsica (since named prefect of Brittany), the new rector, gendarmes and lawyers, leaders, without forgetting the elected officials of the island (now mostly nationalist). “Just reading the names and their titles before my speech took me five minutes”, jokes head chef Mathieu Pacaud.
It is he who, “in the name of the President of the French Republic”He gave the cardinal his knight’s insignia. The young chef and the man of the Church met at Laurent, the elegant Michelin-starred Parisian restaurant where Mathieu Pacaud officiates and meets with the entire French political world. “We call each other often, he has become my psychiatrist, the chef said. Few people have impressed me as much as him, except perhaps Guillaume Gallienne, twenty years ago. What surprises me is that he never judges. »
“What is there to bless?” »
This August 29, the first president of the Court of Appeal of Bastia, Hélène Davo, is on vacation. An opportunity for her. Because in the small assembly there is a man convicted several times before the Corsican courts: Paul Canarelli, the head of the sublime Murtoli hotel property, a complex Luxury pens located between Bonifacio and Sartène where ministers, people and also fugitive thugs hide. His horizon is clear: in a few months he will be summoned before the Bastia court, where a new important case against Murtoli is being investigated. In the courtyard of the bishopric, the businessman rubs shoulders with Gendarmerie General Jean-Luc Villeminey, whose men are in charge of investigating Murtoli. But how can we imagine that Mr. Canarelli “sponsored” these parties?
You have 76.41% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.
