Dissent on the Periphery? Island Nationalisms and European Integration

Abstract

Many scholars have identified stateless nationalist and regionalist parties (SNRPs) as ardent supporters of Europe. This support has been explained as a result of positive developments in supranational integration that convinced these actors that Europe could facilitate the achievement of their territorial demands. Other work, however, leads to an expectation that SNRPs that mobilise within island regions that are geographically distant from the European centre of power (Brussels) will adopt more Eurosceptic positions. This article aims to test these competing hypotheses about the positioning of SNRPs on Europe. It does so by examining the attitudes of SNRPs in two island regions in the Mediterranean: Corsica and Sardinia. The findings suggest that SNRPs in both places cannot be adequately categorised as either Europhile or Eurosceptic. The article examines the role of several context- and actor-specific factors in shaping the complex positioning of island nationalists in Corsica and Sardinia on the issue of Europe.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank WEP's anonymous referees for their helpful and constructive comments, and those interviewed in the course of research for the article. This research was generously funded by an ESRC grant awarded to Eve Hepburn on ‘The Politics of Island Regions: A Framework for Comparative Research’ (RES-000-22-3699).

Notes

1. We employ the terminology of nationalist and regionalist parties following Botella (1989), Keating and Loughlin (1997) and Pallarès et al. (1997). These authors maintained that nationalist and regionalist parties should not be treated as entirely separate movements, as they share a unifying commitment to self-determination and substate territorial empowerment. We draw on the arguments used to justify the use of this term, as set out in Hepburn (2011), which include: its emphasis on the territorial (rather than ethnic) aspects of self-determination goals; its ability to capture the changing self-determination goals of parties in this family; its ability to account for various party self-identifications as nationalist or regionalist; and the fact that it enables us to include and compare parties that are rarely brought together (as some are seen as ‘regionalist’, i.e. the CSU, others are seen as ‘nationalist’, i.e. the SNP, whilst others still use the language of nationalism and regionalism, i.e. the Psd'Az). Furthermore, we employ the term ‘stateless’ nationalist parties to distinguish these substate actors from majority nationalist parties operating on a state level, i.e. Swedish People's Party. This terminology draws on the concept of ‘stateless nationalism’ (Guibernau 1999; Keating 2004).

2. The new territorial assembly would replace the two administrative regional councils on the island.

3. CN was created as an electoral alliance between moderate and radical SNRPs in 1992. However, the refusal of some radicals to denounce the use of violence led to the withdrawal of moderates from the alliance. As a result, CN became the electoral front of radical SNRPs, with close links to the FLNC ‘canal historique’.

4. Designation as a Territoire d'Outre Mer (re-named Collectivité d'Outre Mer in 2003) would give Corsica the same status as the islands of French Polynesia, Mayotte, and Saint Pierre et Miquelon.

5. Eligibility for Objective 1 status requires the regional GDP per capita to be under 75 per cent of the European average. Corsica was classified as an Objective 1 region in 1989–93, receiving [euro]138 million. In 1994–99, the island saw its allocation of funds nearly double to [euro]250 million (Le Monde1999).

6. The party did not adopt a formal position on the Constitution, and allowed its members to vote freely.

7. Alfonsi was elected as part of a joint list with the French Green Party, Europe Ecologie, in the French South-East constituency.

8. Due to its insularity, people in Sardinia pay over 40 per cent more than other Italians for their energy.

9. ‘Referendum, Ha vinto La Democrazie e L'antiliberalismo’, 28 May 2000, found at http://web.tiscali.it/sardignanatzione/novas1.htm