Age-old nationalist fervour in regions aspiring to sovereign status
has a new economic dimension as the euro crisis batters the single
currency zone and its neighbours.
Recent attention has focused on the promise by the British prime
minister, David Cameron, to grant Scotland a referendum on
independence. But election results have also highlighted growing
pressure for the break-up of Belgium and separation of northern
regions from the Spanish state.
"I expect to see an independent Flanders in my lifetime," says Nadia
Sminate, 30, a half-Moroccan Belgian parliamentarian who belongs to
the right-wing, separatist N-VA party and has just been elected to
serve as the country's first mayor of Maghrebin origin.
"Perhaps people are not ready for it yet and we don't want a
revolution. But it will come by evolution, whether it takes 20 or 50
years."
Nor does it stop there. Many on the Mediterranean island of Corsica
want freedom from French control, some backing their ambitions with
violence. There is also movement for further changes in the volatile
Balkans. For some European analysts, it would take just one successful
pitch for independence to trigger a domino effect leading to the most
radical boundary changes since the end of the Second World War.
"When you face problems, there is inevitably debate about how you get
out of them, and in all three cases there is fierce debate on
underlying economic issues and the effects of the euro crisis," said
James Ker-Lindsay, a senior research fellow at the London School of
Economics.
Scottish nationalists have said that they will keep the British pound
pending transition to the euro, a position some observers expect to be
challenged if the single currency's troubles persist.
But Mr Ker-Lindsay says an independent Scotland, and new states
created by a Flemish split with Belgium's French-speaking Walloons or
secession from Spain by the north-east region of Catalonia, would be
"viable entities".
Mr Ker-Lindsay, whose main expertise is in the politics of the
Balkans, fears success for any of the separatist causes would stir
tensions in south-east Europe.
"We would be talking about Republika Srpska in Bosnia, Albanians in
Macedonia, Serbs in north Kosovo and Bosnian Muslims in southern
Serbia," he said.
"They'd want to know why if it was OK for others, it could not be for
them, too." The Balkans have more recent experience of war but Spain,
already experiencing disturbances as anti-austerity protests spill
over into violence, is ripe for further civil unrest as Catalans and
Basques push for independence. Nationalists took the highest number of
seats in recent Basque elections and their counterparts in Catalonia,
which includes Spain's second city Barcelona and boasts the country's
biggest economy, are expected to fare even better in polling on
November 25. The regional leader of Catalonia, Artur Mas, says he
would then hold a referendum asking whether voters wanted
independence. The Spanish premier, Mariano Rajoy, has threatened legal
action to prevent such a vote.
But Jaume Clotet, a prominent Catalan journalist and author who
estimates that 8 to 9 per cent of the region's GDP disappears into
national coffers each year, said: "The question is not whether an
independent Catalonia could be viable. Even the Spanish justice
minister ... has said the problem is more that Spain would not be
viable without Catalonia."
In Belgium, the Dutch-speaking Flemish population feels little in
common with French-speaking Wallonia. Ms Sminate and her party (N-VA
translates as New Flemish Alliance) campaign for gradual, peaceful
secession while seeking more autonomy in the short term.
http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/europe/clamour-for-independence-grows-in-a-crisis-hit-europe#ixzz2ALrzH0Av
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