From Euro-enthusiasm to Euro-scepticism? A Re-evaluation of Minority Nationalist Party Attitudes Towards European Integration

Abstract

This article examines the different dimensions of, and different factors affecting, minority nationalist party attitudes towards Europe. The article draws on evidence from minority nationalist parties in two different contexts—Plaid Cymru in Wales and the Bloque Nacionalista Galego in Galicia—to argue that minority nationalist party attitudes towards European integration are more complex than is usually asserted in the existing academic literature. First, even though minority nationalist parties converged around the idea of a Europe of the Regions during the 1980s and 1990s, the nature of, and motivations for, this support differed widely from party to party. Secondly, there is evidence that, in recent years, minority nationalist parties have become increasingly critical of Europe, although they have not yet abandoned their normative aspirations for a regional Europe. At the same time, however, the salience of the European integration issue has declined markedly in the political projects espoused by minority nationalist parties in Wales and Galicia. The article concludes by arguing that whilst minority nationalist parties may not have turned their back completely on the idea of a Europe of the Regions, a new pragmatism drives these parties' strategies and tactics for meeting their short- and long-term goals.

Keywords:

• Minority nationalist parties
• European integration
• party attitudes
• Wales
• Galicia

Acknowledgement

The author would like to thank John Constantelos and Roger Scully for comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) provided financial support for conducting this research (grant PTA-026-27-1482).

Notes

Some minority nationalist parties may also espouse “new politics” values (Inglehart, 1990: ch. 2; Kitschelt, 1994: ch. 4). Thus, some parties have incorporated green/libertarian issues into their political programmes (Lynch, 1995; Van Atta, 2003), whilst others combine minority nationalist demands for territorial autonomy with themes associated with right-wing extremism, such as xenophobia and opposition to immigration (De Winter et al., 2006; Ruzza, 2006). Due to space constraints, this article will not consider this ideological dimension to minority nationalist party politics, and its impact on their attitudes towards Europe, further. For a fuller discussion of this aspect, see Elias (2008: ch. 2).

This distinction by Kopecký and Mudde (2002) is inspired, in turn, by Easton's (1965) work on different forms of support for political regimes.

For a more detailed specification of these different positions, see Elias (2008: ch. 2).

It should be noted that this definition of Euro-scepticism is in line with what Szczerbiak and Taggart (2003) have termed ‘soft’ Euro-scepticism, since there is not a principled objection to the idea of transferring powers to a supranational body such as the EU, but there is opposition to the EU's current or future planned trajectory. This is distinguished from ‘hard’ Euro-scepticism, that is, a principled opposition to the project of European integration as embodied in the EU.

Other factors that have been proposed as determinants of party attitudes towards Europe include the role of internal elites, factionalism, leadership influence, perceptions of economic interests and transnational links (Featherstone, 1988; Johansson and Raunio, 2001). For reasons of space, this article does not examine the impact of these additional factors on minority nationalist party attitudes towards Europe, although a more comprehensive analysis is provided in Elias (2008).

These data are taken from the 1999 Welsh Assembly Election Study and the 2003 Wales Life and Times Survey.

Within the Labour–Plaid Cymru coalition in the NAW, Plaid Cymru has responsibilities for the following portfolios: Economy and Transport, Rural Affairs and Heritage. Within the Galician government, the BNG has responsibility for the following policy portfolios: Rural Affairs, Culture and Sport, Housing, Equality and Well-being, and Innovation and Industry.

See, for example, ‘O nacionalismo transforma xa o campo galego’, BeNeGa, No.14, May 2006, p.4.

One Wales. A Progressive Agenda for the Government of Wales. Coalition agreement between the Labour Party and Plaid Cymru, 27 Jun 2007.

BNG Press Conference, 15 Sep 2007, ‘Anxo Quintana asegura que as forzas políticas que compoñen Galeuscat serán decisivas para decidir quen vai sentar na Moncloa’.