Counting down to Scottish independence vote

Scots Kindle Secessionist Movements Across Western Europe

RIA Novosti,

15 September, 2014

The upcoming referendum on independence in Scotland and polls showing a "Yes" victory is possible is changing the whole geopolitical environment in Europe, encouraging separatist movements across the region.

SCOTLAND

The long-standing issue of the Scottish independence is to be settled with a referendum scheduled for September 18.

Initially planned by the ruling Scottish Nationalist Party as a three-option ballot – independence, independence-lite and further devolution within the union – the referendum was approved by the British government on October 15, 2012, to have two options – independence or union. As a result, about 60 percent of voters who prefer the intermediate option of further devolution have to make a difficult choice with no option that fully corresponds to their preferences, which makes the results of the referendum unpredictable.

Apparently, London assumed that full independence would scare off most Scottish people. However, this plan could now go awry. If a majority votes for secession, Europe could witness the rebirth of the Scottish state on March 24, 2016.

Earlier in September, YouGov, a company that previously had been painting pessimistic pictures for the "Yes" side ahead of the referendum, published a poll showing that they had finally outweighed the "No" camp, though the margin remains too narrow.

CATALONIA

Catalonia is a Spanish region with a high level of cultural and political autonomy and its own regional parliament. Separatist tendencies have been fueled by the economic crisis in Europe, as this region recovered faster than the rest of the country and even helped the central government.

The regional government in Barcelona is demanding a referendum just like the Scottish one in November. But unlike the British government, Madrid is uncompromising, which makes a confrontation inevitable.

Thousands of people gathered in Barcelona to in support of Catalonian independence on September 11, marking the anniversary of Catalonia's 1714 defeat in the War of Spanish Succession.

BASQUE COUNTRY

The Basque Country, another secessionist region in Spain, is in worse economic shape than Catalonia. Nevertheless, Basques are in a bellicose mood. ETA, an armed Basque nationalist organization, has killed more than 800 people in 50 years in its attempts to achieve independence from Madrid. However, neither weapons nor negotiations have brought Basques closer to a referendum. The Spanish central government rejects this possibility just like in the Catalan case.

FLANDERS

Belgium state consists of the Dutch-speaking Flanders, the French-speaking Wallonia, which also includes a German-speaking community and the officially bilingual Brussels. Since the 1950s, Flanders became not only self-sufficient region, but also the economic driving force of the whole country.

The recent parliamentary elections in Belgium in May 2014 handed a victory to the New Flemish Alliance, a Flemish nationalist and Conservative party led by Bart de Wever. De Wever seeks establishing an independent Flanders through negotiations.

If Flanders secedes, Belgium may lose more than half of its population and economic power. Another point of contention would be Brussels, which is also the seat of the European Union and NATO. It also remains unclear what would happen to Wallonia. There has been talk of it joining with France, Luxembourg or even Germany.

PADANIA

Another secessionist region that has predominantly economic motivations is the north of Italy. Lombardy, Aosta Valley, Piedmont, Liguria, Venetia and Emilia Romagna produce the most part of Italy's industrial output. The majority of northern Italians are skeptical about the south "living off" them. In the 1990s, the Lega Nord party called for a full secession of Padania (Po Valley). The party, however, has become more moderate lately and mainly initiates discussions of migration issues and demands that the north be allowed to keep three-quarters of the money it generates instead of transferring it to Rome first.

SOUTH TYROL

South Tyrol, which also known by its Italian name Alto Adige, is an autonomous province in northern Italy, where economic and cultural factors generating separatism are intertwined. The region belonged to Austria-Hungary until the end of World War I and was then adjudged to Italy. The majority of the population is of Austro-Bavarian descent and speaks German. Only a quarter of the population speak Italian as their first language.

The separatist movement in this rather prosperous area was fueled by the national debt crisis. After Greece, Italy has the largest debt in the euro zone.

CORSICA

Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean belonging to France, was under the rule of Genoa from 1282. Corsica was briefly an independent republic from 1755 until its conquest by France in 1769. Thus, Corsica's culture contains both French and Italian elements, and its constitution while a republic was written in Italian.

Corsican attempts to gain autonomy have been met with opposition. The National Liberation Front of Corsica (FLNC) has been fighting for independence from France for years, attacking representatives or symbols of the French state and continental French citizens' vacation homes.

This summer, however, the FLNC announced that it would stop using violence. Nevertheless, the conflict has not disappeared, but just abated. Suggestions by the socialist French government under Lionel Jospin in 2000 were fiercely rejected by the conservative opposition who believed that granting autonomy to Corsica would inevitably lead to independence claims by Brittany or Alsace.

BAVARIA

Bavaria, Germany's second-most populous state in the southeast of the country, has its official name of "Freistaat Bayern," or the "Free State of Bavaria." With more than 13 million inhabitants and high economic indicators, Bavaria would be able to get by independently. Bavarian separatists are mainly represented by the conservative politician Wilfried Scharnagel who called for Bavaria's separation from Germany in 2012. However, no larger movement has arisen so far.

2014 saw the rise of nationalist tendencies and the advent of right-wing parties all across Europe, mostly manifest in such countries as Britain, France, Spain, Belgium, Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Austria and the Netherlands. 

The results of the European Parliament elections in May 2014 reflected this tendency, bringing victory to right-wing and Eurosceptic parties for the first time in its history.