Minority nationalism and the European Union: the cases of Scotland and Catalonia

This article compares the secessionist movements in Scotland and Catalonia and evaluates the minority nationalist discourse by focusing on the role of the European Union (EU) in the quest for independence of Scottish and Catalan nationalists.

Both separatist movements champion territorial independence from their host states, but favour continued membership of the EU. Given the paradoxical nature of this stance, leaving one union to continue in another, we examine the role the EU plays in the discourse used by the secessionist movements. In order to do so, we carried out a coding exercise, comparing the White Papers produced by the Scottish and Catalan pro-secessionist governments. What we find is that the EU plays a pivotal role in secessionist debates, construed as a Union which affords numerous benefits to smaller countries, as well as providing a framework which not only helps dissipate the negative perceptions of ‘going it alone’, but may even facilitate independence.